"BBB doesn't pay me" - workers protest in Shoreditch
Eleven workers fired by swanky restaurant Beach Blanket Babylon (BBB) in Shoreditch, east London, have been holding nightly protests outside it since management sacked them last week.
Workers grew tired of bosses withholding their pay.
When they confronted a manager about it they were fired with no notice.
Shoreditch BBB manager Tim rang one worker up after the protests had begun to harangue him, “What’s your problem? Well, shut up then.”
Workers’ payslips and bank statements seen by Socialist Worker show that pay slips were being issued before workers were paid.
“I never received my money the same day as my payslip,” said Mido. “When the third payslip comes we would only just be getting money from the first one.
“They’d pay me a couple of hundred here and there, and £300 when I told them I needed to pay rent.”
When the workers challenged senior manager Gillian Anderson-Price, she patronised them, in a recording heard by Socialist Worker. Anderson-Price said, “I know you don’t understand it.”
Mido also told Socialist Worker that the service charge doesn’t go to workers and he was never paid sick pay.
Meanwhile, BBB’s owner Robert Newmark lives in an opulent mansion in Hampstead.
The Tories preside over the behaviour of bosses like Newmark—and must answer to the workers they keep in poverty.
Pay squeeze set to tighten
Bosses are set to continue their squeeze on working class people’s living standards with the worst average pay deals in three years, a new survey suggests.
A survey of more than 1,000 firms by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and employment agency Adecco was published on Monday.
It found that businesses expect average pay rises of 1 percent this year—down from 1.5 percent three months ago.
With inflation now at 2.7 percent, this would mean a real terms pay cut of nearly 2 percent.
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