Employees asked to choose between pay and holidays

Hospitality bosses have been slashing wages and cheating staff out of holiday pay since the introduction of the Working Time Directive last month.

Evidence collected by the GMB trade union shows some employers are "seeking to adversely alter workers' terms and conditions". A union spokesman said: "In the hotel industry we have had people being asked to take a pay cut if they want to take any holiday."

Under the directive, anyone who has worked 13 consecutive weeks is entitled to paid annual leave. For full-time workers this is three weeks, rising to four in November 1999, while for temporary staff it is a proportion of this, depending on hours worked.

Nevertheless, some smaller recruitment firms are telling their staff that their holiday pay forms part of their hourly rate so that any leave they take is unpaid.

Charles Walker, director of communications for Blue Arrow personnel services, said: "They think they are clever by undercutting their competitors but they won't have a temporary workforce in six months' time."

One case being investigated by the Transport and General Workers' Union concerns staff at a London restaurant chain who, on asking their manager if they could rearrange their 53-hour weekly shifts, were told their wages, of £2.60 an hour, would be cut.

Regional organiser Dave Turnbull said: "Employers seem hell-bent on continuing to exploit people. It is happening more in catering than any other industry and if catering employers want to start recruiting people they have to get their act together."

By Louise Bozec