OVER 10,000 people have signed a petition calling for free staff meals at TGI Fridays restaurants to be reinstated for hard-up workers.
Bosses at the popular chain, which has branches in Glasgow’s Buchanan Street, Silverburn and Braehead shopping centres, have been criticised for cutting the benefit in the middle of a cost of living crisis.
Staff who work 10 hours or more were entitled to a free meal during their shift but this was axed at the start of May.
The union Unite Hospitality launched the campaign, calling on TGI Fridays CEO Julie McEwan to reconsider the "ill judged" move.
A spokesperson said: "Hard working staff at TGI Fridays are at the centre of the hospitality experience. Without them, TGI Fridays is nothing. In the midst of a cost of living crisis, low paid staff working for the business will be forced to give up more of their hard earned cash in order to fuel themselves through the day.
"The TGI Fridays customer experience is based on happy and extrovert team members driving sales. It makes sense to keep these staff fed and motivated. The business should act to reinstate the meals."
The decision has come under fire but the company defended the move saying it wants to provide more "equitable benefits" for all employees.
The union added: "Staff are rightly angry and frustrated that they will have to sacrifice more of their income to feed themselves at work in order to satisfy the profit margins of company executives."
A worker and member of union Unite told how they are struggling to survive as energy bills and food prices continue to soar.
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He said: “At the moment I’m struggling to pay my rent, the staff benefit was my only hot meal of the day. So many employees rely on shift meals and think it’s absolutely disgusting that they have been taken away without any thought of how this will impact decent, hard-working staff.”
A spokesman for TGI Fridays defended the decision, saying that it gives staff free fizzy drinks and half price food and wants to provide more “equitable” benefits for all employees.
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He added: "We still offer all team members a range of industry leading benefits including 50 per off of our entire food menu and free soda during working hours, plus 50 per cent off for up to six people which they can use all year round as many times as they wish.
"However, we do recognise that these are challenging economic times and this will impact on our teams. As part of our ongoing efforts to ensure colleague wellbeing, we are exploring a partnership with Wagestream, the financial wellbeing app, to offer extra support to our employees."
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