Glasgow bar workers owed thousands in furlough and unpaid wages

U nite the Union claim staff at AdLib on Hope Street and Blue Dog on West George Street have not received full payments since October and allege they are owed “hundreds of thousands” in unpaid wages and furlough.

While Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) cannot comment on individual cases, the Glasgow Times understands that issues with the revenue and the company have been ongoing since July.

However, on Christmas Eve, the payroll company claimed these issues had been rectified and that payments would be made within 14 days. But employees claim that they have still not received any payments. The revelation comes after AdLib recently underwent a £200k refurbishment.

Workers claim they were left without an income from October to December last year until the company began paying them based on the hours they would normally work before Christmas.

One worker, who has asked not to be named said: “For several weeks I had no income at all. We’ve now had small amounts to keep us going but this isn’t enough to cover rent and bills plus the debt I owe from going without a wage. It’s a lot less than the furlough payment and missing out on tips makes a big difference too.”

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Unite the Union, who represent workers at the two popular establishments are considering legal action over the unpaid wages.

The union’s Bryan Simpson said:”The way in which our members at AdLib and Bluedog have been treated has been disgraceful.

“Most of their 160 workers haven’t received a full wage since September and many are still owed part wages from the summer.

“Regardless of what the reasoning is, every employer has a legal obligation to pay the wages of their staff under the Employment Rights Act and the National Minimum Wage Act.

“After months of failed promises to resolve, our members across all venues have had enough and shall be lodging collective legal claims for breach of contract and unlawful deduction of wages if the wages remain unpaid.”

The union have now launched a campaign to recoup the unpaid wages which has the support of local members of parliament including Alison Thewliss, Stewart McDonald and Chris Stephens.

Stewart McDonald MP for Glasgow South has been working closely with workers and Unite the Union to resolve the situation. He said: “The staff are obviously in a horrendous situation.

"Like everybody else, they’ve got financial commitments, bills to pay and families to feed and to not have what they would be entitled to in order to meet those commitments is unbelievably unfair and stressful.

"My priority is trying to unlock whatever the problem is between the company, HMRC and ultimately getting the staff paid and ensure that when they get the money they are entitled to from the previous months backdated, that they are then put on the regular payment schedule that they would expect to be on, as per the terms of the job retention scheme."

Stewart McDonald MP for Glasgow South is working closely with Unite the Union to resolve the issue

A spokesman for HMRC said: “We can’t comment on identifiable businesses.

“The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) was delivered at unprecedented pace and has protected more than 92,000 jobs across Glasgow.

“Our guidance was clear on the requirements for both iterations of the scheme. For the first, HMRC needed to be notified to a payment of earnings on an RTI submission on or before 19 March 2020. For the CJRS extension announced on 31 October, an RTI submission had to be made to HMRC between 20 March and 30 October.”

A spokeswoman for Ad Lib and Blue Dog said:

“Due to a technical issue with HMRC our businesses have not received any furlough payment since mid-June. We covered the costs of furlough for our employees from our own funds until October, at which point we were forced to reduce the payments made, when it became no longer financially possible for us to do so.‘

“We understand this is hugely difficult for our employees and have been requesting HMRC to resolve the situation since early July.

We have provided HMRC with the requested necessary documentation and we anticipate their action imminently. Our hope is for a swift and positive resolution.”