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IT was revealed last week that the Scottish brewer and pub brand BrewDog is to stop paying the Real Living Wage to new employees.
Instead of paying the £12-an-hour Real Living Wage, BrewDog will now pay new employees the National Living Wage, which will rise from £10.42 an hour to £11.44 in April.
We revealed that the founder of BrewDog, James Watt (below), was spotted on a luxury holiday in the Maldives with his celebrity girlfriend Georgia "Toff" Toffolo just one month before the announcement was made.
A spokesperson for Unite the union told The National: "BrewDog has been paying the Real Living Wage since 2015.
"To withdraw it now, during the most acute cost of living crisis in a generation, is outrageous.
"We are already working with our BrewDog members across the country to collectively challenge this awful decision and force the senior management of the company to do the right thing by the workers who have made them millions."
The change shows a complete U-turn from the company’s position in 2019, as the company told of its pride at being a Real Living Wage employer in a blog post.
It said: “Some companies may baulk at paying the Living Wage because of cost implications, pricing pressures or even the spectre of Brexit that hangs above all our heads – but our experience of the last five years is that by investing in the talented, skilled people who bring their passion and enthusiasm to work, the business case stacks up.
“Above and beyond this, the ethical reasons for becoming a Living Wage Employer are massively important to us, as they should be to every other company out there.
“The Real Living Wage is an independently calculated rate that ensures workers can meet the cost of living and earn enough to support themselves and their families.
“It goes beyond the Government’s minimum wage and we have proved over the last half-decade that employers in the food and drink sector who pay their employees fairly in this way can be a driver for growth for our entire industry.”
It was revealed in the Sunday National that Unite is considering taking legal action against BrewDog, as it believes the changes to staff wages are illegal.
And on Tuesday, Watt responded: “The controversy last week was because we have only increased our national bar team wages 20.4% since March 2022 and not the 26% that would have been required to retain a Real Living Wage status.
“I would love nothing more than to give everyone in our business a further huge pay increase, but we simply have to balance our books, offer fair value to our customers and ensure the long-term viability of our business. And ultimately, protect jobs.”
The future of BrewDog's staff wages is unclear – but trade unionists argue the power of unions to hold employers to account for their actions has never been clearer.
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