Pizza Hut staff accuse franchisee of docking wages | EUROtoday

Pizza Hut staff are accusing a franchise of ”blatantly illegal” behaviour alleging it has altered timesheets, docked wages and stopped funds per supply.

Glenshire Group which runs all 22 Pizza Hut supply retailers in Scotland has been served with a grievance by the Unite union on behalf of drivers who declare they have been advised of adjustments by textual content with no session.

Delivery driver, Cian, advised the BBC that Glenshire had proven ”a whole disdain for his or her employees and their clients” and mentioned it was ”fairly truthfully abysmal”.

Glenshire mentioned it’s “absolutely committed to robust employment practices” and mentioned it’s “listening to our colleagues, to understand where there are concerns”.

Cian, 30, has been delivering pizzas within the west of Glasgow for greater than two years. An worker of Pizza Hut franchise, Glenshire Group, he has at all times been paid the National Living Wage plus a price of £1.45 per supply.

But he mentioned his phrases and situations have been modified with out session or warning.

He mentioned two weeks in the past he and a number of other different drivers have been advised by way of textual content message that his pay had elevated to £12.21 an hour however he had misplaced his £1.45 supply funds, or what the corporate calls “discretionary driver commissions”.

”The £1.45 would pay for my gasoline and a tiny little bit of the operating price of my automotive however I’ve been residing paycheque to paycheque,” he told the BBC.

“We had a number of drivers simply stop as a result of they merely cannot afford to do that job in the event that they’re having to pay for their very own gasoline. There’s one store that has misplaced each single considered one of their drivers.”

In a letter to employees dated 10 March, seen by the BBC, Glenshire mentioned: “We have removed discretionary driver commissions with effect from today. This change is necessary to ensure the sustainability of our operations.”

The letter doesn’t state that the corporate has any plans in place to make sure drivers’ bills might be paid by Glenshire.

In a press release to the BBC, the corporate mentioned that ”driver commissions haven’t been decreased, quite the remuneration mannequin has modified from a ‘per supply’ quantity to a ‘per mile’ foundation”.

Unite’s head of hospitality, Bryan Simpson has accused Glenshire of ”a cynical attempt to offload over 100 drivers” before the rise in employers’ National Insurance Contributions (NICs), the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and the National Living Wage on 1 April.

Among the increases next month, the National Living Wage for people aged 21 and over will rise from £11.44 to £12.21.

“I’ve by no means seen one thing so blatantly illegal happen, even in an business, frankly, that isn’t recognized for respectable staff rights. This is the worst that I’ve got here throughout in over a decade,” Mr Simpson said.

He said the loss of drivers’ commission per delivery could effectively mean that “these staff are going to be introduced beneath the minimal wage.

“They’re going to be losing thousands of pounds a year. So, as far as we are concerned, this is fire and rehire under a different name.”

Unite’s grievance, seen exclusively by the BBC, also accused Glenshire of acting ”fraudulently” by going into old staff timesheets and retroactively adding unpaid 20 minute rest breaks.

In a text message seen by the BBC, Glenshire director Zibby Ghafoor told store managers ”all time sheets have been deleted for last week..can we please add breaks in.”

Unite claims Glenshire unlawfully deducted these breaks from their wages.

In its assertion, Glenshire mentioned that there have been “no changes to break policies”.

A supervisor referred to as Adam, not his actual title, mentioned he works for hours on his personal in his retailer. He mentioned it is merely not attainable to take breaks.

“You do not get your 20 minutes of uninterrupted time ever…so not only do we not get breaks, we now get charged for the breaks that we don’t take.”

Cian says it’s his ”civic duty” to speak out even though he knows it could put him at risk of losing his job. ”I’m trying to help people who can’t stand up for themselves, because the way the Glenshire group have treated everyone is abysmal. The long term ramifications of what they are doing, it’s just not worth me keeping my job.”

Glenshire Group employs more than 200 staff including more than 100 delivery drivers although over the last few days, the BBC understands several have quit.

In the 10 March letter to staff, Glenshire said that with the increases in employer NICs and the National Living Wage rise on 1 April it was having to “reassess our driver supply mannequin in an effort to retain enterprise viability”.

It also said drivers could choose to switch from being employed to self-employed.

The letter stressed this would be a voluntary choice and would not be compulsory. Glenshire last night told the BBC there were “no blanket adjustments to self-employed contracts going down”.

Employment lawyer Joanne Moseley of Irwin Mitchell warned that from 1 April, when the new National Living Wage is introduced, Glenshire could be in breach of minimum wage regulations.

“If Glenshire would not reimburse its drivers for funds they’ve incurred in reference to their employment – on this case their petrol bills – they are going to be in breach of the NMW laws. HMRC will examine and has the ability to impose monetary penalties,” she says.

Adam called on bosses of the Pizza Hut company to investigate the Glenshire franchise.

“Please pay attention to what this firm are doing to your model. Please pay attention to what they’re doing to the employees and all for their very own profit, all to avoid wasting them cash,” he said.

A spokesperson for Pizza Hut UK said: “Pizza Hut is deeply dedicated to making sure a protected and truthful working setting for all staff and as such has strict insurance policies in place that its franchise companies should adhere to.

“Although Glenshire Group operates as an independent franchisee and is ultimately responsible for its own employment practices, we take these allegations seriously.

“Glenshire might be actively participating within the coming days with any involved staff, and we’ll proceed to analyze this case.”