22 December 2016
RMT Press Office:
LOW-PAID workers at Liverpool’s world-famous Britannia Adelphi hotel are to strike tomorrow (December 23) and on New Year’s Eve after their scrooge employer flatly refused to negotiate on pay and conditions despite a huge rise in profits.
RMT members at the hotel will not book on for shifts that start between a minute after midnight and 23:59 on December 23 and 31 – two of the hotel’s busiest days of the year.
Despite Adelphi profits rising by 40 per cent to £1.14 million, helping Britannia to double its group profits and hand out a huge £35 million dividend, the company remains a minimum-wage employer and refuses to discuss paying the Living Wage Foundation rate of £8.45.
As profits have risen, the hotel has added to staff anger by blanking RMT’s call to end zero-hours contracts, cutting room-cleaning times by 20 per cent, reducing staffing levels and even denying its workers free use of the hotel car-park.
RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said:
“It is shameful that the Adelphi’s owners are sweating both their assets and their workforce while paying the lowest possible wages.
“Tourism in Liverpool is booming, yet Britannia is denying its staff a fair share of the profits they have generated.
“Britannia Group boss Alex Langsam has raked in a personal fortune of £220 million on the backs of our members’ labour, and they have had enough.
“Britannia can clearly afford to pay a living wage, and the company knows that RMT is ready to talk whenever they are, but our members have served notice that they will no longer be treated like Victorian-era servants.”
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