Pret a Manger staff may strike after pandemic pay cuts are made permanent
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Coffee shop chain Pret a Manger is facing a walk-out by staff after being told reduced pandemic pay rates were now permanenet.
The shops UK wide are now fully open after trading restrictions eased.
Most of the workforce earn the minimum 'living wage' of £8.91 an hour. The service bonus, which was dropped last summer as a temporary measure, plus no pay for breaks, would now be a permanent feature of their employment.
The service bonus was linked to performance and judged by a mystery shopper. It went down to 50p in April this year from £1, reports The Guardian.
The combined changes for a worker on an eight-hour shift, including a half-hour break, who may often get a mystery shopper bonus, runs to an 11% pay cut per shift when compared to pre-pandemic levels.
A Pret worker told the Guardian they had been moved to organise a strike next month as pay was becoming worse just as the work was becoming tougher.
Read More Related Articles Read More Related ArticlesThis is linked to a subscription service introduced a year ago that allows members to get up to five coffees a day for a monthly £20 fee.
“I [have] always been working in hospitality but changed to Pret because they used to give better conditions for their employees," the staff member said.
“With the coffee subscription we have more work. More effort. More stress. People never stop going for free coffee.
"But our conditions as employees are going back instead … Now there is not any difference to work between a Pret a Manger and [another coffee shop]. I love my job but we want our conditions to improve or be at least as before.”
Pret told the Guardian it was having to keep down pay after the pandemic had “a big impact on our business”.
The company ditched its dividend payment to shareholders and in April warned of “material uncertainties” over whether it can continue as a going concern as its city centre outlets suffered from the absence of commuters and tourists.
Pret closed 74 shops in the UK last year and 22 in the US, while shareholders put in £185m of additional funding into the firm in February and put another £100m on standby in March to help keep it afloat.
A Pret spokesperson said: "The business is still trading significantly below pre-pandemic levels, but we continue to review our benefits. This is in no way a reflection of the hard work of our teams, and we’re incredibly grateful for their dedication and commitment.
"It’s important to us that we always communicate openly and honestly with our team members, which we’ll continue to do over the coming months.”
Ian Hodson, national president of the Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union, said: “We call on Pret to think again.
"We can no longer sit back and allow these companies to boost their profits from workers wages. It’s awful to read that workers are facing even worse conditions as we try and get the economy back on track.
“After the pandemic we are seeing a return to bad business as usual and working people cannot and should not accept that any more. We all deserve a better deal and we will support the workers at Pret if the strike goes ahead.”
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