PizzaExpress cuts hours for waiting staff in job role shakeup
The change, which comes into force this week, means a reduction in pay for around 400 waiting staff who are paid by the hour in up to 90 of the group’s 360 restaurants.
The cut to waiting staff’s hours will be before 5pm, with the additional workload handed to salaried managers, who will receive no extra pay. The change could see staff losing hundreds of pounds per week in pay.
Managers at the pizza chain currently do not take a share of the service charge paid by customers, leading to workers questioning what would happen to service charge payments when no waiters are on duty.
The Unite union, which represents some of PizzaExpress’ 10,000 plus workers, claims that affected staff could lose up to five hours of work a day, which would mean a cut of £260 per week without tips for those over 23 years old, on minimum wage, and working five days a week.
According to the Guardian, PizzaExpress told employees the changes to ‘minimum staffing’ rules were intended to ensure the company “hits budget”.
“We are resetting how we use our labour system to ensure we always have the right people, in the right place at the right time to hit our budget,”.
The Guardian also quoted one manager’s post on the internal staff messaging system, Slice, saying: “Nobody asked the managers if we wanted to take the extra job load as we already have so much to do, and now they want us to do more with not even asking us if we are OK with it.”
“This is not fair, not just for the waiters but also for us managers.”
