Mitchell & Butlers: Hour cuts and under-paid employees results in a 83% staff turn-over in UK restaurant and pub chain

Mitchell and Butlers is a company that owns several hundred bars and restaurant chains in the UK, employing over 46,000 staff members that I have the misfortune to be employed by. Out of those 46,000 staff, turnover will result in 38,180 (average) leaving the business. Staff turnover is currently at 83%, which is an improvement over 2016s record 86% staff turnover (that’s 39,560 people). Yes... practices in this company are that bad, that 4 in 5 people will leave this company.

The first issue which leads to people leaving would be the terrible pay employees receive. While it is difficult obtaining the exact figures, a majority will be under the age of 25, meaning that the company can use a wage tier set up by the government that allows different levels of pay depending solely on age and not merit. If you are aged between 21-25, you will be paid around £7.38 or less. 18-20 year olds can be on as little as £5.90 an hour and I have heard of even less for apprentices, who could spend 2-3 years stuck in a wage that cripples them.

So regardless of merit, experience and even your role within the business, you will be paid according to when you were born, not the job at hand and the tasks involved. This is discrimination against those under 25, and it is a leading factor in staff turnover.

But apprenticeships are even worse. Mitchell and Butlers have this apprenticeship program which is taking two years to train some poor soul to fry a fish, grill a steak or pour a glass of wine, paying them a pittance in the process and giving them an almost useless qualification to show for. As these people are usually quite young, it would also mean that once they finish their apprenticeship, they could still only be put on £7.38 per hour.

But the company goes a step further to scrimp out on giving their employees a fair wage. Seriously, they will cut your hours regardless of your predicaments, your bills, your rent and your general living costs. This is to save the business money; a measure that is so wrong on so many levels, considering M & B has an annual profit of over £300,000,000...
Effectively, they have cut your hours so they can use that money that they would have paid you to go towards bills... meaning that you will be paid less, meaning it will become much harder for you to pay your own bills. All this, is so the company might be able to boost profits despite the sinking ship. This shows they have zero interest in bettering personal lives of their employees by giving them a higher standard of living... instead; they have actually defined a wage increase as a risk. They don’t consider loosing staff a risk, which is why you will find some of the worst employees in this company as well as some shocking reviews– they don’t want to pay anyone a decent wage for a decent job well done.

Recap: They don’t want to pay the living wage; they don’t want to give you solid dependable hours; they don’t care that nearly 5 in 6 people will leave.

But giving out hours isn’t as simple, because the company only a finite amount many to give depending on bookings or sporting events (if you work in pub-chains). You would have thought the kitchen staff, bar tenders and front of staff would receive a majority of the hours, but in truth it is eaten up those on high salaries of the managers and those under them... just one of those salaries would be enough for 3 or 4 regular staff.
Its insulting... knowing that their contracts out-weigh my need for a decent wage or hours to make up for a lower overall salary.
But the first step is identifying the problems and coming up with solutions. For example, if M & B don’t want to hand out hours, then perhaps increase the wage. If they don’t want to increase the wage, then don’t cut our hours! I shouldn’t have to struggle to pay my bills (let alone save anything) just because there are too may salary contracts in my place of work and the head office wants falsely look good on paper by cutting costs and corners.

Please, if you work with this company, please please share this with you colleagues, because with inflation, this new sugar tax, rising public transportation and rising housing costs, it is becoming increasingly difficult to live and work in the UK for under 25s. My age doesn’t give me any discounts or money off any of my bills... the price of my weekly shop will no doubt be the same as someone in their 40s. So why the hell should my salary be any less?

Thank you for reading.