Tue 13 Feb 2018, 04:05 AM | Posted by Mark Langabeer
Dispatches, a Channel 4 programme, has highlighted the exploitative working practices of Premier Inn, owned by the Whitbread Group. The company made a pre-tax profit of £450m and rewarded shareholders a 10% increase in dividends in 2016.
They market their hotels as clean and comfortable, at affordable prices, but an undercover reporter revealed another side of these shysters. Out of 750 Premier Inns, 46 of their cleaning staff are employed by contractors called ISS and the reporter underwent a three-day trial/training programme to get a job of housekeeper with them. Her starting time was 9am, but she was told to arrive by 8am, to attend a team meeting and load her trolley. When the reporter asked about pay, the head housekeeper told her pay started at 9am
Housekeepers are expected to clean a room every 20 minutes. This was only possible if guests stayed longer than one night. When bedding needed changing, it proved impossible to clean a room in the allotted time. The reporter was required to sign a form, confirming that she had a half hour break, although she never had one. She also finished late at the end of her shift.
Her hourly rate was £7.50 per hour, which is the minimum wage. However, due to her unpaid work, her effective rate was nearer £5 per hour. The head housekeeper was unhappy with the time the reporter took to complete her duties and he brought in an experienced team member with the aim of showing her how the job was done.
When the reporter used a different cloth to clean the toilet from the one she had used to clean the bath and basin, the ‘trainer’ advised her to clean everything with a guest’s used towel, otherwise, “it would take too long”.
Dispatches interviewed a manager whose identity was concealed. He said that around 50% of annual income was made up of a bonus that involved reducing costs. The managing director received an annual income of £2.5m, of which £600,000 came in the form of a bonus. These are powerful motives to cut costs and it often ends in breaches of basic hygiene rules.
Dispatches also interview an employment barrister, who felt that these practices contravened minimum wage legislation. The low pay commission have reported that the practice of unpaid work was on the increase, particularly in the catering and hospitality sectors.
Labour’s policy of ending zero contracts and scrapping the latest raft of the Tories anti-union laws are a welcome step. However, I feel that Labour should abolish all anti-union laws dating back to 1980, as part of a socialist programme to irreversibly shift income and power in favour of working people.
