Letters

Basic steps to stamp out bribery

John Benson-Smith is quite right to keep the problem of backhanders in the forefront of everyone's minds.

While it has always been common knowledge that chefs are vulnerable to this type of bribe - probably because they often insist on doing their own purchasing - it is, perhaps, worth noting that the problem exists right across the procurement spectrum and is by no means confined to food.

Bribes, in one form or another, can come from suppliers of everything from beverages to staff uniforms. Although the vast majority of suppliers do not indulge in this illegal activity, there are almost certainly sufficient that do to cost the industry dearly. While one can never eliminate corruption, the question of how to reduce the problem still remains. The responsibility and - as Don Irwin points out - the bill, fall to the establishment and certain basic steps are all too rarely taken.

Establishments should have clear guidelines as to what is and what is not acceptable when it comes to gifts from suppliers, and the consequences if these guidelines are not adhered to. (Even a bottle of wine from a supplier at Christmas is unlikely to be given for any other reason than in the hope of soliciting or maintaining sales.) Purchasing practices, procedures and authorities should be kept under review and independent price comparisons should be carried out on a regular basis. Employers owe it to their staff to ensure that they are not put in a position where they can ever be suspected of being involved in such corrupt practices.

NIGEL CUDLIPP

Managing Director,

The Purchasing Network,

London SW11.

A pension scheme for the industry

In A recent article on the subject of pension schemes (22 May) reference was made to associations such as the British Hospitality Association setting up a group personal pension scheme. It happened that we were already considering this, recognising the changes that were afoot in the provision for state pensions.

Our national executive committee has agreed that we should consider the matter further and we are now canvassing the views of our members in the current members' questionnaire. We have in mind setting up a special scheme for both our members and their employees which will be marketed under our name and geared specifically to the needs of the hospitality industry.

If the research shows that there is a demand for such a service, we intend to launch it in the autumn.

JEREMY LOGIE, FHCIMA

Chief Executive,

British Hospitality Association,

London WC2A.

Give us the tools to teach properly

As A lecturer involved in hotel and catering education for almost 20 years, I have to take issue with the tone of the press release issued by the British Hospitality Association for Garry Hawkes's address to the association's annual lunch.

Mr Hawkes opens with his traditional broadside at colleges and education, only touching subsequently on the root cause of what he decries - resources. Apart from appealing to "give us the tools and we'll finish the job", it may be worth highlighting the following:

1. Hotel and catering schools - has the country really ever had any? Westminster, Ealing, Birmingham, Scottish Hotel School/Ross Hall, perhaps.

Yet the majority of hotel and catering education has been in faculties, departments and other groupings in larger establishments where there is constant fighting for a lessening pool of resources.

2. Throughout the 1980s local authorities and then the various funding bodies consistently reduced resources and, therefore, class contact time.

In a government-induced climate of competitive colleges, is it any wonder that some don't take students any more - treating them as clusters of funding units? Hence the drift towards general business courses which attract maximum funding and fewer costs.

3. My own college faculty has lost four key members of staff in the past year, encouraged by government pension restructuring. They have taken their contacts, experience and professionalism out of education for one major reason: they are deemed too expensive.

It is extremely easy to aim kicks at colleges, but we are victims of a "bring it down to a cost" mentality rather than building up to a standard. The legacy of successive government and local authority cuts is now being seen, so why not tackle the illness without blaming the patient?

ROGER STAMP

Stonehouse, Gloucestershire.

Programme gave wrong impression

I write with regard to the programme Hotel recently shown on ITV.

I work at the Swallow Royal Hotel in Bristol and, like other employees, have been incensed at the way in which it was depicted.

Of course there are sometimes complaints and tension in any organization, but these were given far too much prominence and presented a totally wrong impression.

Many excellent amenities were not even shown.

My position in the hotel brings me into direct contact with the guests and the vast majority, including many celebrities, go out of their way to express appreciation of their stay.

It may be of interest to note that Giles Stonehouse, our new head chef, has recently returned from Canada where he was invited to cook for the Queen and Prince Philip.

Courtesy and consideration to the guest are paramount in this hotel.

HENRY GWYN

Doorman, Swallow Royal Hotel,

Bristol.

Buried alive in a hot, noisy kitchen

One reason why the industry is suffering from a shortage of chefs and cooks is the appalling working conditions.

The manager of the Savoy was once quoted as saying that a hotel could be likened to running a domestic home on a hugely magnified scale.

But how many people have a house or dwelling that has a kitchen without windows in a room "buried" internally in the building, working with inadequate air supply and extraction?

No sensible person would pack their kitchen with equipment, freezers and fridges, which generate so much heat and noise that the conditions are stressful, tiring and extremely unpleasant.

The list of idiotic craziness in kitchen design is endless.

The most important aspect of most catering operations is food but scant attention is paid to the welfare of personnel. Is it any wonder there have been and will continue to be problems?

J RYALL

Liskeard, Cornwall.

Long hours drive good staff away

Further to the recent Opinion by Bob Gledhill (5 June) on excessive working hours and the "recruitment problem" article by Sarah Jane North, I would like to bring to your readers' attention my own observations on the subject and cite a case history.

I have been a caterer since 1974, running two fried-fish restaurants and take-aways, and my son, who is 24, has had a recent unhappy experience of excessive hours.

He has had a dedicated and loyal attitude to his career in the six years since "graduating" from catering college. He has just left his third employer after only four weeks as a chef de partie in a three-AA-rosette hotel restaurant, having worked at that level previously. He is ambitious, but not an idiot.

The reason why he lasted only four weeks was that he was working 15 hours a day in the first three weeks without a break. I repeat: without a break!

In his last week he worked from 9am through to 3am the following morning, again without a break.

I am amazed that the company concerned could impose such working conditions on its staff.

His "salaried" position meant, of course, that he was virtually doing the work of two people, and at £11,000 per annum his skills were being bought at a mere £2.82 per hour. Dammit, he could earn more operating a till at McDonald's!

I am not particularly proud of the fact that I can pay only between £3.50 and £3.90 per hour to my part-time staff, but at least I treat them like human beings and have their loyalty. They stay with me for years rather than months and only leave because of unavoidable circumstances.

Many catering establishments that are experiencing the kind of problems outlined in Sarah Jane's article had probably drifted into employee abuse during the recession when they could "get away with it". But now there are greener fields to graze, the cattle are being more selective where they eat. Employers of that ilk have only themselves to blame for their predicament.

Finally, what annoys me intensely as an employer is the fact that the employee abuse I have just portrayed is the reason why the Social Chapter and the Working Time Directive have been brought down upon the heads of ALL employers, good as well as bad, and for that I do not thank the employee abusers one jot.

CLIVE SWONNELL

Swonnell's Restaurant & Fish Bar,

Worthing, West Sussex.