Pret a Manger staff consider strike after temporary pay cuts made permanent

Pret has been hit hard by the pandemic
PA Media
Lily Waddell12 August 2021

Pret A Manger workers may go on strike after the company informed them their temporary pay cut were being made permanent.

Staff, who got together on an anoymous social media account to voice their concerns, have now received the backing of the Bakers’ Food and Allied Workers’ Union.

Pret have revealed the pay cut for breaks won’t be reversed after the changes were made last September.

Legally employees must take a half-hour break during an eight-hour shift.

However, it has now emerged Pret will pay the Mystery Shopper Bonus back to the pre-pandemic level of £1 an hour.

Pret’s CEO Pano Christou emailed a letter confirming this to Team Members on Thursday and thanked everyone for their feedback.

When it returned in April this year, the bonus was paid at 50p an hour which was down from £1 an hour before the pandemic.

Last year in July, their service bonus — which is judged by a mystery shopper— was dumped.

Pret has been hit hard by the pandemic as many workers have not returned to their offices in the city where many of their coffee shops are based.

As many as 74 coffee shops were closed in the UK last year at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

The business revealed it had been trading “significantly below pre-pandemic levels”.

A Pret spokesperson told The Standard: “Like others in the hospitality industry, the pandemic had a big impact on our business, so last year we adjusted our business model. This included a review of all contracts and benefits, after which some changes were made.

“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, told The Guardian: “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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