(en) Britain, SolFrd Direct Action Solidarity #2* Newsletter of the Solidarity Federation - Brighton Local - pages 2-3

Casualisation vsanarcho-syndicalism: Hotel agency pay up after single picket ---- In 
February, two members of contracts had been terminated. One Brighton Hospitality Workers 
(BHW) worker was owed ?286 in holiday brought unpaid holiday entitlement pay for leave she 
was prevented from issues to the group, incurred while taking, despite repeated requests 
to both had worked at the Brighton her manager, as well as 2 days' premises of a 
transnational hotel outstanding sick pay. The second chain. The hotel's housekeeping staff 
worker was owed ?1 80 in holiday were contracted to work there by the pay, also for leave 
she was prevented UK operation of an international from taking, again despite repeated 
recruitment agency with a reputation requests ? in December her boss told for withholding 
pay, particularly after her she 'had lost' her right to take paid leave.

Interviews with the workers
exposed shameful conditions atthe
hotel 'Housekeeper's health
conditions don't matter and work
pressure is huge. You are expected
to work really fast, maintaining a
work rate of 3 or 4 rooms an hour,
sometimes without taking breaks for
lunch and feeling dizzy or dehydrated.
You know when you start but never
when you'll finish'. The workers held
both the recruitment agency and the
hotel management equally
responsible: 'They offer cheap rooms
but the only cheap thing in this hotel
is the worker, who thanks to the
agency, changes the bedding, cleans
and tidies-up sometimes very messy
and dirty rooms for less than ?2 per
room. Wouldn't you have thought the
hotel was happy enough with its
extremely high profits?' Recording
workers' experiences is an important
part of BHW strategy, and we are
building a database of bad employers
to be shared on social media and
reproduced on a map of exploitation
'hotspots'.

As at the start of any workplace
conflict, a strategy was agreed on
with the workers and immediately put
in place. Letters demanding payment
were sent to the agency, firstly from
the individual workers, and when this
failed to get a response, from BHW
and Brighton SolFed as a collective
demand. Our collective demand
resulted in part payment to one of
the workers, but clearly this
wasn't enough.A
propaganda leaflet about the
campaign, naming both hotel
and agency, was drafted and
sent to both, warning that if
full payment wasn't made
immediately then a campaign
of action would begin. We
agreed to focus action on the
hotel, being the workplace
directly responsible and also
the most vulnerable in terms
of it's public profile ? it would
then be up to hotel bosses to put
pressure on the agency to pay up.
We staged a well-attended picket
of the hotel on a Saturday morning in
March, where leaflets were handed to
guests, staff and management, and
plastered over the windscreens of
guests' cars. The hotel manager was
obviously surprised by this and during
a discussion with two of our
delegates hurriedly contacted her
area manager and the agency
director. We left promising escalating
action until the workers' demand
were met, including a social media
campaign, which visibly alarmed the
manager. We were contacted on
Saturday afternoon by both the hotel
chain's area manager and the agency
director, who requested that further
action be suspended until they
investigated the matter. Full payment
was made the following week, and in
a statement the agency director
stated that they were paying as 'a
gesture of goodwill' ? it's amazing
how much goodwill a campaign of
direct action can inspire!

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Know your rights at work: Contracts and starting a new job

When you accept a job offer a legal
contract is in place even if you haven?t
been given this in writing. You have the
right to a written statement of the terms
& conditions of your job no later than 8
weeks after starting. This contract must
include:
? name of employer & employee
? date job began & for how long it will
continue
? rate of pay, how often it will be paid
& how this is calculated
? terms relating to the hours of work
or a ?zero hours? contract
? holiday entitlement, including public
holidays which your employer can
include
? rules about sickness absence
? length of notice you must give to
leave the job
? job title & brief description of duties
? if the job is ?fixed term? : the date it?s
expected to end, or if it?s a ?zero hours?
contract
? place and address of work
? details of disciplinary procedure
? if you are regularly expected to work
overtime

You must receive a payslip by your first
pay date that shows wages before and
after deductions. Your employer can only
make deductions if these are required by
law (income tax, national insurance) OR
if a term in the contract allows them to
AND they have your consent - in many
casual or temporary jobs it?s common
practice for the employer to make
deductions from your first payslip for
training days, and to do this they must
issue you with a contract including this or
notify you beforehand. It is illegal for your
wages not to be paid on time or not in
full.

You?re not required to work for more
than 48 hours per week (on average over
your first 1 7 weeks) although you can
voluntarily sign an agreement to opt out
of this.

You are entitled to a 20-minute break
if you work for 6 hours, although you
might not be paid for this.

You are entitled to 5.6 weeks (28
days) holiday leave per year if you work
full-time or a proportion of this if you
work part-time ? for one year?s
entitlement this is calculated by
multiplying the hours you work in a
normal week by 5.6 (see calculator at
www.gov.uk/calculate-your-holiday-
entitlement). It?s common for this to be
calculated monthly but this doesn?t mean
you are required to take the leave each
month as it can be carried over into the
following month. Many employers ?
particularly in casual or temporary work ?
don?t permit leave at busy times of the
year and they must either include this in
the contract or notify you beforehand.

Remember that many employers
- hospitality, catering or retail
being particular offenders ? will
withhold this information from
you. It?s important that you are
aware of your basic rights and
are able to assert them in your
workplace. Talk to your
colleagues, make them aware
too, and have the confidence to
demand your rights from the
bosses.Contact Brighton
Hospitality Workers if you need

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Migrant worke experience

We have all arrived here with
excitement, with the aim of working
hard and improving our English in
order to work in our "ideal job"
someday... I have seen most of
you, in the kitchens, washing
plates or cleaning schools.

However, time passes and
life asks for its place and its
essence, and work with
endless shifts becomes
harder. The thought "at
least I have a job" starts
to conflict with self-
respect. We realise that
we are just cheap workforce
with no rights, in some cases for
four or five pounds per hour, with no
contract nor holidays.

Coming to make some money
becomes just survive.Food
becomes a treasure - and you
eat as much as you can in the
workplace - and the contact with
your loved ones, just
a message or a visit,
becomes the best of
the presents.

During this time I have seen and
experienced a lot of abusive situations.
Things like pay a "deposit" of 100 pounds
in free work hours, earn ?3.50 per
hour or just not be paid or "free
trainings" for inexistent jobs.

Dreams about the "ideal job" ends
whashing plates and mops, further
and further away from the wages of
native workers, you accept the
situation and aspire to ?6.31 per
hour.

Some go back, some withstand,
some try to get benefits, but almost
nobody speaks up to condemn the
situation that is becoming worse.
That situation is well known for us,
we lived it in our country but from
the other side. Not many people
claim for their rights: yes, we are
immigrants, but regardless where
we come from we have rights,
dignity, dreams and aspirations.
Capitalism is the global game, and
now we have to play from this side.
However, we fought for immigrants'
rights in our country and we will not
stay passive now, because the
situation will become worse if we do
nothing. There are more and more
abuses, and it is becoming more and
more normalised.

You were brave, and you
decided to take a plane
and try to improve your
life many kilometres
away... are you really
willing to stay quiet?
Are you willing to be
ridden roughshod
over? Because this
attitude makes
things worse for the
rest of us.

Let ?s arm our
conscience, let ?s speak
frankly, where we said
immigrants let ?s say
workers, where we said
rights let ?s say justice!!

Hospitality in struggle!