By Angela Green: Closures and job losses at Whitbread provokes threat of legal action from Unite.
Hundreds of people currently working at restaurants including Brewers Fayre, Table Table and Beefeater are considering taking legal action against Whitbread, over an alleged lack of consultation on restaurant closures and 1,500 planned job cuts.
The move to legal action is being coordinated by the Unite union on behalf of affected members. Unite has written to Whitbread, which also owns Premier Inn hotels, stating it is now considering launching multiple employment tribunal claims for unfair dismissal.
The union claims some of the workers potentially affected by the company’s moves to exit more than 200 restaurants have not been told which sites will close despite evidence asserting detailed plans to do so have been in place since as far back as last December.
It is being reported that some of the affected workers who enjoy living in accommodation as part of their roles will be served with eviction notices in July and August, when the majority of the closures and redundancies are anticipated to be implemented.
Whitbread announced the plans for job cuts at the end of April as part of a £150 million three year cost savings exercise. It said at the time it would seek to find alternative jobs for those affected. The company is understood to be looking to sell 126 unprofitable restaurants and close 112 more which will be converted into space for new hotel rooms.
The disagreement over how the restaurant closures and the people that work at them are being dealt with has erupted into quite a war of words between Whitbread and Unite. More information including quotes from representatives from both sides is available here from The Guardian.
The eventual outcome of this row looks like it will need to be settled in tribunal unless both sides seek to find a solution, from an ESG perspective the optics are less than favourable for Whitbread. The Whitbread PLC Environmental, Social and Governance Report 2023/24 can be read in full here.