Bar staff at a Glasgow venue who filed a formal grievance over health and safety failures have claimed their hours were cut or workers were dismissed after they made complaints.
Eleven members of staff from Broadcast on the city’s Sauchiehall Street wrote a letter detailing more than 50 issues related to health and safety, security, pay, contracts, hours of work and holidays on Tuesday, July 8.
Hospitality union Unite said days after the collective grievance was handed over to bosses, signatories were removed from the rota and told they no longer had a job.
The letter, which Unite said was signed by 75% of staff at Broadcast, “details some of the worst breaches of health and safety” that the union has ever dealt with, including “dangerous” levels of rot and mould.
Paul Cardow, who runs Broadcast, also owns Sneaky Pete’s in Edinburgh.
In the letter, staff alleged they “are regularly exposed to dangerous levels of black mould in the office, bar, and toilets”, and claimed maintenance and plumbing issues left staff subjected to “dealing with biohazards such as human faeces”.
Other complaints claim that there is no alarm in the disabled toilet, bouncers do not show up leading to staff dealing with security issues, and there are regular pay inconsistencies and a lack of communication in other financial and contractual areas.
A Unite representative told STV News that after going public with the grievance against Broadcast on Monday, July 11, a meeting had been arranged with the venue’s owners to commence negotiations and solutions.
It was also confirmed that a member of staff who claimed that they had been sacked after signing the grievance had been reinstated with immediate effect.
Bryan Simpson, industrial organiser at Unite Hospitality said: “We are pleased that Mr Cardow has finally agreed to meet with his workers and their union to discuss what are very serious issues at Broadcast.
“We hope that he will work with us to seek a positive resolution to this grievance which must include immediate fix for dangerous health/safety issues and contractual breaches. “Hopefully, today is the start of making Broadcast one of the best hospitality workplaces in Scotland.”
Broadcast have been contacted for comment.
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