The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 6th September 2024
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 6th September 2024
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
...the harder they fall. And that certainly was the case for mighty Harrods, the fashionable West End store once patronised by the Royal Family.
Migrant cleaners employed at Harrods, the 175 year-old shop in London where basic necessities such as a 55-yearold bottle of Tomintoul single malt whisky will only set you back £7,000, have forced Management to rescind restrictive holiday plans.
Harrods had imposed a new policy of restricting holidays to between one to two weeks depending on the time of year. But Management caved in after the night cleaners threatened a walk-out.
The strike warning came from the United Voices of the World (UVW), the street union that represents an impressive 95 per cent of the cleaners – which is always helpful when needing to take a stand.
After the climbdown workers will still be able to take three weeks of holiday all through the year. This will allow migrant workers to return home for a reasonable period. While this might seem a trivial matter this would have adversely affected workers who largely come from Asia and Africa.
Employees often save for several years to travel long distances to visit their families and are unable to take several shorter trips in a year. Due to the potentially discriminatory nature of the abandoned policy, UVW had been exploring legal action.
a victory for all
One of the cleaners involved, Clive Furtado, said “it’s a victory for us all, for everyone. All our demands are being met. Whatever we asked Harrods for, they have agreed to all the demands, which is brilliant. Before they told us that we can only take two weeks’ holidays so now it’s back to three weeks which is good. They’ve also started approving the holidays.
Before they could take a long time, but now the holidays have been approved very fast”.
Because of our struggle the day shift has also benefited, everybody is benefiting from our fight”.
When the new policy was imposed in June cleaners who had already arranged and paid for their holidays were left scambling to cancel or change their plans. The company suddenly turned down holiday requests longer than two weeks.
UVW’s general secretary, Petros Elia, added that: “This was a clear case of discrimination against migrant workers, who have always been able to take extended holidays to visit their families. The abandoned policy could have led to a patently absurd and unconscionable situation where none of the facilities’ workers would be able to spend sufficient time with their families who live overseas.
The way these cleaners have been treated highlights a broader issue of how a multimillion-pound company for the rich is undermining the welfare of its migrant work- force, an all-too-common occurrence”.
This is not the first time UVW has taken on Harrods. In 2017 it secured for workers 100 per cent of the service charge for chefs and waiters, which had previously largely gone into Harrods’ coffers.
In December 2021, restaurant workers secured a substantial pay rise and a similar rise was won again late last year, again by threatening strike action at the busy Christmas period. Now the basic hourly rate for chefs is £12.50, above the London Living Wage of £11.05. The well-to-do can therefore take a break from their ethical shopping by tucking into a £23.50 avocado and chicken ciabatta with a clear conscience.