As we start 2025 Unichef is taking a long hard look at the established methods of payment within the Chef Agency sector.
Since the very early days of Chefs being employed by Agency’s it has been common practice for many ( if not all ) Agency’s to pay chefs according to either the clients requests, the chefs abilities, what a particular chef may demand in terms of payment, or even what the Agent thinks may be a suitable payment .
The whole system with Agency pay has been shrouded in mystery for many, many years, often to the detriment of the chefs concerned.” charge Rates” ( what an agency charge’s the client ) are carefully guarded and transparency within the Agency Recruitment industry is opaque to say the least.
The Recruitment industry is poorly regulated ( they say not ) and is VERY employer orientated, chefs in many cases ( not all ) are treated as fodder for the system and many Agencys avoid and ignore current employment legislation, believing that they are often not the true employers and that the rules do not apply to them, there are many grey areas that need to be resolved for sure.
We have always known that a chef can be paid at one rate and another chef ( doing the same job, at the same venue ) a completely different rate, this has gone on for years, without chefs being able to complain.
Recent developments in EU law has now enabled Unichef to take a further look at the system of how chefs are paid by Recruitment Agencys and are very much looking into what we believe may be a national scandal that has been going on for many years.
You may well have heard or read about pay discrimination in high profile cases involving Next ,Asda and Tesco and now Morrisons too are coming under the same spotlight.
A few years ago the European Court of Justice ruled ( in the Asda case ) that the test for wage discrimination should be the “value to the firm” placed upon an employee and that all employees of a similar job description are of equal value to that firm, irrelevant of talent, experience or what a third party client wishes to pay the firm for that service.
In the Asda case the Court found that employees stacking shelves on the shop floor were paid less than employees stacking shelves in the Wherehouse, effectively the same job. The Court ruled that they both had an “equal value “ to Asda and further ruled that this “test” should be applied when looking at any case of wage discrimination.
That Judgement has now been “handed down” to the British Courts and is indeed now on our statue books, it is now British Law that all employees of “equal Value “ to the film employing them that they be paid equally.
Turning this into a culinary environment and certainly into an Agency situation, the law as interpretated by Unichef means that any chef employed by an agency whether working in a 5* hotel or a care home should receive the same pay rate regardless of where they work or what a client is prepared to pay that Agency for their services.
Our view, which we are now consulting on, is that if a Agency chef is cutting carrots in a Care Home or school or is cutting carrots in a Hotel then the job is effectively the same and the pay rate should be also the same. What a client has been charged is irrelevant and the Agency’s should pay the same to each chef.
Just how right we are remains to be tested and as part of that consultation we really need to hear the stories of Agency chefs across the country who know of case where they have been paid unfairly and their views on what we have said.
Chefs can have there say here on this site or they can contact us by email admin@thechefsunion.co.uk
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