UKHospitality: A black cloud

While contract caterers will largely escape the damaging effects of forthcoming business rates increases and proposed tourist taxes facing the wider hospitality sector, there’s a black cloud looming that could prove troublesome. The Employment Rights Act will be significant for contract caterers and is a piece of legislation that we’re determined to ensure works as best as possible for the sector. Our liaising with government, and indeed the Labour Party in opposition, about the act has already proved influential in shaping its policies, but there’s a long way to go and lots more to do.

The government’s own consultation timeline for implementing the legislation reveals some of the important areas yet to be considered: flexible working, notice and cancellation of shifts, and trade union recognition and access. Ongoing consultations to which UKHospitality has so far responded concern trade unions, including two matters we’ve serious concerns about: their right of access to workplaces and companies’ duty to inform workers of their right to join a union.

On the right of access, hospitality is a sector in which many businesses operate from hundreds of small sites employing a small number of team members. But the proposed legislation has been drafted with large, single-site employers, such as major manufacturing and distribution depots, in mind. Unlike hospitality, these are not typically places where customers are present.

We are concerned that hospitality businesses with large numbers of sites each employing a small number of people could become overwhelmed by the administrative burden of dealing with multiple trade union access requests. Therefore, UKHospitality suggests an ‘emergency pause’ in exceptional circumstances, to be determined by the Central Arbitration Committee. This would give employers time to digest and respond to multiple requests, as well as offering the space to sort out numerous requests from different trade unions. The bottom line, though, should see unions using their own resources – a union office, for example – when they wish to organise a business’ workforce.

Our members have also raised concerns about trade unions’ ‘digital’ right to access, which would see them requesting employees’ e-mail addresses. This is impractical, and in sectors like ours would mean revealing personal addresses. This must be avoided at all costs for reasons of general data protection regulation, as well as personal protection.

As for the proposed new duty to inform workers of their right to join a trade union, UKHospitality has expressed concerns about the significant additional red tape it would force upon businesses. We’re also unconvinced about the need for contract caterers and other hospitality operators to explain the function of trade unions to their staff.

Fundamentally, it’s not the role of businesses to promote trade unions, rather than the trade unions themselves. The information companies are being asked to provide is freely available online, with employees who wanting to access it already being able to do so.

Then there are the cost pressures and unintended consequences such moves would introduce. A labour-intensive, low-margin sector, hospitality already faces significant challenges, including rising staff costs, increasing energy prices and changes to National Insurance contributions.

Additional red tape, combined with other changes in the Employment Rights Act, could make employers more cautious about recruitment, increase reliance on fixed-term contracts and disproportionately affect small businesses. These risks must be considered carefully, particularly given the challenging trading environment many contract caterers and other hospitality businesses are confronting right now.

On behalf of its members, UKHospitality will continue to be the leading hospitality voice, playing an active and influential role in this important act’s consultation process. We will argue forcefully that any further reform should be carefully targeted, proportionate and designed to complement, rather than complicate, established frameworks. This will be particularly important for all those businesses operating in contract catering and across our wider industry.

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