THE German Doner Kebab empire – which has family links to Anas Sarwar – has been advertising jobs at below the minimum wage, the Sunday National can reveal.
The Glasgow-based casual kebab chain – which has more than 160 branches worldwide, including across Scotland – is owned by the Scottish Labour leader’s brother Athif. It has advertised dozens of jobs at below the National Living Wage of £11.44 per hour, which is the minimum for those aged 21 and over.
While workers aged under 21 can be paid lower rates of the minimum wage, advertising roles at lower rates potentially excludes older workers and could be unlawful due to indirect discrimination.
The firm – which operates a franchise model in which independent operators own and run the respective restaurants – claimed the ads were “outdated” and posted in “error” by its franchisees and said it doesn’t reflect current pay rates.
The jobs were advertised centrally on a bespoke GDK webpage hosted on job ad website leisurejobs.com.
Examples included a kitchen manager job at the Dundee branch with an April start date being advertised at £10 to 10.50 per hour.
The listing asked for a candidate who could “consistently deliver industry leading guest service” and who has “experience with high volume trading levels”.
One job ad even went as low as £7.70 to £9.30 per hour for a front of house position in Edinburgh.
A role as a back of house team member in a branch in the English town of Basingstoke, meanwhile, was advertising for a role at £9.50 per hour with “experience desired”.
A shift leader in the west end of Glasgow branch would get £9.50 to £10.50 an hour, according to another advert.
The Sunday National spotted 28 adverts with a range of different salaries below the minimum wage before they started to get taken down after approaching GDK.
When asked whether GDK HQ could confirm whether all employees – in its franchises or not – were paid above the minimum wage, a spokesperson said GDK HQ is a “proud living wage employer” and that, when it comes to its franchises, it insists that “all must comply with legal pay requirements”.
The National Living Wage – which is for those over 21 – has been set at £11.44 per hour since April 1, 2024.
While workers aged under 21 can be paid lower rates of the minimum wage, advertising roles at lower rates potentially excludes older workers and could be unlawful due to indirect discrimination.
The National Living Wage is also set to increase to £12.21 next month under the Labour Government, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves previously saying the pay boost marked a "significant step" towards achieving Labour’s promise of a "genuine living wage" for workers.
Meanwhile, Sarwar also came under scrutiny last year over another family business started by his father and run by his other brother Asim – United Wholesale Scotland (UWS) – over his apparent confusion about whether workers are paid at least the real living wage, which is set at the higher rate of £12.60 an hour.
During an interview with the BBC’s Sunday Show, Sarwar claimed UWS does not pay all of its workers the real living wage and was met with fierce criticism for doing so.
However, the union representing the workers then released a statement saying the opposite.
The Scottish Labour leader (above) has no current involvement with either family business.
He previously enjoyed a minority shareholding in UWS said to be worth £4.8m before relinquishing his stake in 2017, putting it into a trust for his three children.
Hero Brands also has connections with UWS that extends beyond it being owned by Athif.
The Glasgow-based firm, whose portfolio also includes Island Poké and Choppaluna, has a subsidiary company, GDK International, which was previously owned by UWS until 2020 according to Companies House, before being passed onto Athif – who was also previously managing director of UWS.
The Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) has hit out at GDK and Hero Brands, with general secretary Roz Foyer saying it’s “galling” that hospitality chains “still wish to make a quick buck” on the back of workers.
“Whether through ignorance or incompetence, it is totally unacceptable from any employer. We would expect customers to vote with their feet and remember which companies stand beside their workers with decent pay and conditions and which ones don’t,” she said.
Foyer added: “The New Deal for Working People, brought forward by the UK Labour Government, cannot come quick enough.
"It is being brought in precisely with the aim of outlawing Dickensian working practices, with a ban on exploitative working practices and holding to account rogue employers who pay poverty wages.
"It is the job of the labour movement to ensure that no employer anywhere evades the law.”
Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater (above) said the adverts “raise very urgent and serious questions for GDK”.
“No company should ever be advertising jobs at less than the minimum wage, let alone paying their workers less than it,” she added.
“There is absolutely no excuse for it. It is immoral and illegal.
“We badly need to end poverty pay and exploitation in the hospitality sector. We also need to end the scandal of age-based wages and young people being paid even less.
“No ifs and no buts, every worker deserves at least a real living wage and conditions that allow them to live comfortably.”
SNP MSP Kevin Stewart said: “Workers' rights are an imperative if we are to build a fairer, more prosperous Scotland, but they have for too long been an afterthought by successive Westminster governments.
“The SNP Government advocates for the real living wage – and we urge the Labour Party to align their minimum wage with this amount, as they previously pledged to do.
“The SNP are clear that Labour’s plans do not go far enough. If Scottish Labour care about protecting workers, they will devolve responsibility for employment law to Holyrood so the SNP can ban zero-hours contracts once and for all.”
A Scottish Labour spokesperson said: “Anas Sarwar has no involvement in this business.
“Labour is delivering he greatest boost to workers’ rights in a generation and is taking action to boost pay and tackle insecure work.”
The spokesperson for GDK said: “A number of outdated ads were posted on Leisure Jobs in error that don’t reflect current pay rates. These have now been removed from the platform.
“GDK HQ and our parent Hero Brands are proud living wage employers and are committed to the development and growth of our people. Together we employee 51 people all of whom are on the living wage or above.
“GDK is a 100% franchised business, with independent operators owning and running the respective restaurants within the group. We insist that all our franchise partners must comply with legal pay requirements, and we have a whistleblower hotline which provides a confidential helpline for team members.
“GDK is one of the fastest growing restaurant chains in the UK and almost 3000 people are employed by our franchise partners. Our latest stats show that the retention rate from the start of 2025 is 99%.
“This insight shows that we have a really engaged workforce and hugely positive work culture as we continue to open new restaurants and meet the exploding consumer demand for GDK across the country."
