This Living Wage Week we want to celebrate our Hospitality & Tourism network and the ways in which Living Wage employers are investing in their staff teams and the wider community.
The past few years have had a devastating impact on Scotland’s Hospitality & Tourism industry and employers have faced challenges including the pandemic, spiralling energy and supply costs and staff shortages. Despite this ‘perfect storm’, Living Wage businesses continue to put their people and communities first, ensuring not just a fair wage but wider support for their teams and customers.
At Living Wage Scotland, we have been encouraged by the continued growth of the Living Wage Employer Network, which now includes more than 180 accredited Hospitality & Tourism businesses who have collectively uplifted more than 3 200 workers to the real Living Wage.
With our #TheGoodWeDo campaign, we want to shine a light on the positive stories – giving our network an opportunity to showcase all the ways in which they are making a difference.
The newly opened Springburn Chippy has firmly set itself as the chippy to go to in the community of North East Glasgow. Brought to you by the owners of Purrple Cat Cafe, this chippy with a big heart is doing great work in the community and is showing the positive ways in which businesses can have a social impact.
Javarea Imran, Operations Manager told us more about their community-based approach as part of the #TheGoodWeDo campaign:
“Springburn Chippy is unique in many ways to other traditional chippies. We are proud to be officially accredited by Living Wage as the 1st chippy in Glasgow and, the 2nd in Scotland to pay our team beyond the minimum wage.
Here are some examples of the good we do in our community:
We continue to work with Springburn Jobcentre to provide employment to local folks and, have removed the barrier of long-term unemployment and childcare, as the main reasons why some folks were struggling to return to work.
We welcome folks to come in for a paid work trial which gives them an opportunity to shine us with their skills, experience and personality, beyond a piece of paper.
By paying the Living Wage rate, our team have been able to improve their standard of living and also, cope with rising living costs, which would have been much more difficult on a lower rate.
We have been actively working with the local community hub too at Spirit of Springburn, by distributing vouchers for free meals to those in need, to assist in their food relief project.
At the end of the night, all cooked food in our range is given away for half price in order to minimise food waste and also, to give others a chance to treat themselves who may not be able come along during the day.
Being sustainable and making conscious decisions is not just good business practice but is the right thing to do.”
We are encouraging our network of Hospitality & Tourism businesses to share their own #TheGoodWeDo story online – you can also find more of these on the Living Wage Scotland social media channels.