London's prices drive catering staff out of town

Catering workers are among the main victims of a system of "economic apartheid" that is forcing tens of thousands of workers on low and average earnings out of London, warned a union report published last week.

The Battersea & Wandsworth Trades Union Council said workers earning less than £29,000 a year could no longer afford to live and work in the borough. Lead organiser Geoff Martin said the situation was equally serious in other parts of the capital.

The report blamed soaring property prices and rents, along with a decline in available council and social housing. It warned that public services faced "meltdown" and that companies would find it even harder to recruit and retain staff if action was not taken.

Martin said chefs were part of a hidden and neglected group of the capital's essential workforce, which was more popularly identified with nursing, teaching, policing and firefighting.

The union council would appear to have an ally in London Mayor Ken Livingstone. A spokeswoman for the Greater London Authority said: "The whole issue is something Ken is really keen on. It is a top priority for him to increase affordable housing."

Priced out of the borough

The union survey revealed that McDonald's staff in Battersea and Wandsworth earned between £11,762 and £15,717 a year.

Recent job advertisements in the borough offered £14,000 a year for a demi-chef de partie and weekly rates of just £170 for bar staff and coffee shop assistants, up to £197 for a cook/supervisor and £295 for a chef de rang.

by Angela Frewin angela.frewin@rbi.co.uk

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 7-13 June 2001