A campaign to get employers to pay for transport home for all late-night hospitality workers has been backed by Glasgow councillors.
Unite Hospitality has been calling on bosses to ensure staff get home safely, with members reporting paying two hours of their wages to get a taxi home or feeling unsafe on late-night public transport.
The city’s Green councillors took the campaign to a full council meeting yesterday, presenting a motion, which proposed night-time workers should receive free transport after 11pm and received cross-party support.
Ahead of the meeting, union members demonstrated outside the city chambers.
Caitlin Lee, chair of Unite Hospitality’s Glasgow branch, was the victim of sexual assault while walking home from a shift at a city hotel.
Caitlin said she is fighting to ensure “no worker faces the same situation I faced.”
She said: "The motion will “send a strong message to hospitality workers and employers that the safety of workers should not be compromised over profit.
"We are in a cost of living crisis, tips are decreasing and a lot of people use their tips to pay for their taxis. Workers make the drinks, they make the profits for businesses.
“Employers do have a duty of care to you in the workplace, but why should it be that as soon as you leave that workplace that responsibility is totally gone? It's not acceptable.”
The motion was brought to the council by Councillor Anthony Carroll and seconded by Councillor Holly Bruce.
Councillor Bruce said the “timely” campaign was one she could relate to as “an ex-hospitality worker, who has worked in Glasgow for various employers, some good, some not so good, and as a young woman.”
She said: “Something as simple as getting home safely at night shouldn’t be this difficult, especially in a thriving city like Glasgow."
She added that physical and sexual harrassment and assault “happens in this city every single day and we need to prioritise tackling this.”
Councillor Eunis Jassemi, Labour, said the city had “failed to show our appreciation” for hospitality workers.
He said: “We fail to show respect to those who have always put us first.
“This motion won’t solve gender violence or misogyny, but it shows that there are ways that people can be safe, and it should not be on the young, the low-paid or the hospitality workers to bear the brunt of responsibility. It should be on us politicians and absolutely on the employers.”
Following the motion, council officials in licensing, transport and community safety will design plans to meet the aims of the campaign. They will build on work already carried out by the licensing team to ensure free transport is offered to workers after 11pm by licence holders.
Officials will also work with transport partners, including SPT, Scotrail and bus operators, on providing more frequent and safer public transport at night.
Councillor Alex Wilson, SNP, who chairs the licensing committee, said it was a “fantastic” motion and he looked forward to developing the policy statement.
He added: “The city centre itself is a dangerous place to be if you don’t know it and getting home safely is a challenge.”
Councillor Ruairi Kelly, SNP, said the campaign could be extended to all late-night staff, such as hospital workers, cleaners or call centre operators.
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