Directly employed workers of less than a year’s service have contracts terminated and casual workers left with zero hours

Unite Hospitality organiser Neil Moore challenged the Hastings Group on their decision to make dozens of their workers redundant:

“Workers at the Hastings Group were buoyed by news earlier today that the government had promised to provide an 80 percent wage support to avoid the prospect of widespread job-losses and substantial economic damage in the face of the Coronavirus threat. Unfortunately, their hopes were cruelly ravaged when they received letters from their employer telling them that they were having their contracts terminated in coming days in the middle of their shifts.

“This is a callous blow – made to reduce this massively wealthy company’s wage bill. Only workers with less than one year’s service were targeted for termination as they have fewer rights – this is nothing less than a disgraceful attack on workers to save the profit margins of the Hastings Group as they await subvention by HMRC.

“Those who were employed on zero-hours, casual contracts have already been denied hours as a cost-saving measure – leaving them, employed technically, but not in receipt of any with no income.

“In the context of the huge intervention announced this afternoon, the Conservative government must now extend a moratorium on redundancies and unpaid layoffs to prevent such callous decisions which leave workers facing destitution at this time of crisis”, Mr Moore said.