Unions to protest outside ‘posh’ London hotels
Demonstrations will take place outside two ‘posh’ London hotels tomorrow to highlight the plight of low pay for hotel staff.
The Unite union is planning demos outside the Radisson Edwardian Mayfair and the Holiday Inn Mayfair tomorrow afternoon to coincide with United Nations’ designated World Tourism Day.
Unite claimed there are no employers within London’s hospitality sector independently endorsing and paying their employees the London ‘living wage’ rate of £8.55 an hour.
It said instead many of its members are forced to live on little more than the national minimum wage of £6.19, which set to rise by 12p on October 1.
Many members of staff are women and from ethnic minorities, it added.
Unite said it had decided to stage demonstrations at the two "posh" hotels to raise awareness of low pay.
"Our protests tomorrow are focused on two hotels where we believe things should be different," said Unite regional officer Dave Turnbull.
"The Radisson Edwardian May Fair hotel operates a franchise agreement with Carlson which owns the Radisson brand and the Holiday Inn Mayfair is owned by Intercontinental Hotels (IHG). Neither of these hotels pays its lowest paid workers the London ‘living wage’.
"However, both Carlson and IGH are signatories to the United Nations global compact. Employers, who are signatories to this compact, have given an international commitment to standards of decency, including the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.
"We call on these two hotels, and all London hotels, to pay the ‘living wage’, so that some of the lowest paid workers in one of the world’s most expensive cities share in the current tourism boom that the capital is enjoying."
In the summer, Unite presented a report ‘Hopelessly Addicted to Low Pay to the Greater London Authority (GLA)’, demanding that the hospitality and hotel industries pay the London ‘living wage’ of £8.55 an hour.
Holiday Inn parent IHG said it has made a commitment to become a London Living Wage Employer in all the London hotels it manages and is working with its owners to realise this goal.
by Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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