The petition, which calls on PizzaExpress to abandon its new 'labour management scheme', has so far received more than 4,000 signatories.
First announced last week, the cut to waiting staff’s hours will be before 5pm, with the additional workload handed to salaried managers, who will receive no extra pay.
Unite has claimed that affected staff could lose up to five hours of work a day, which would mean a cut of £260 per week without tips for those over 23 years old, on minimum wage, and working five days a week.
“The impact this will have on the most financially insecure part-time workers who need these lunchtime hours to fit around school and childcare is catastrophic,” the union says.
Managers at PizzaExpress currently do not take a share of the service charge paid by customers, leading to workers questioning what would happen to service charge payments when no waiters are on duty.
PizzaExpress has reportedly told employees the changes to ‘minimum staffing’ rules were intended to ensure the company ‘hits budget’.
The group is quoted as saying: “We are resetting how we use our labour system to ensure we always have the right people, in the right place at the right time to hit our budget.”
The Guardian also quoted one manager’s post on the internal staff messaging system, Slice, saying: “Nobody asked the managers if we wanted to take the extra job load as we already have so much to do, and now they want us to do more with not even asking us if we are OK with it.”
“This is not fair, not just for the waiters but also for us managers.”
To view the Unite petition, click here.
