< News

20.01.2017 / News / HARRODS

Victory at Harrods!

VICTORY! VICTORY! VICTORY!

We have beaten Harrods, the richest and most prestigious department store in the world! 100% of the service charge will now go to staff!

Congratulations to our members, the Harrods restaurant workers, for their resilience and courage and for getting organised and standing up to their employer’s outrageous practices.

Background

After Harrods’ chefs and waiters joined UVW we immediately submitted a claim for 100% of the service charge to go to staff. Harrods had previously been taking up to 75% for themselves, without admitting the exact percentage. This was equivalent to  around £5000 per worker per year.

After helping the chefs and waiters build towards a potential strike and mobilising hundreds of people for a massive demonstration which ended up shutting down Knightsbridge and much of Harrods, and threats of regular and even bigger demonstrations to come, Harrods finally gave in and agreed to give 100% of the service charge to staff.

They also agreed to our other demands of appointing an independent tronc master to administer the service charge and allowing staff to sit on the tronc committee.

This victory sends out a clear message to the rest of the restaurant and hospitality industry that workers are no longer going to accept anything less than 100% of the tips and trade unions are ready to help them get organised and fight.

The success of the campaign at Harrods offers a powerful model to follow for other workers across the industry.

We will now continue to push Harrods to improve the conditions and pay of their workers and demand proper union recognition.

More on the campaign:

Read articles about our victory on politics.co.uk and the Guardian. You can also watch our video of the demo and browse some of the photos.

 

SHARE