Union highlights job agency adverts during strike action by hospitality workers

 

Unite has lodged a legal complaint concerning illegal strike-breaking by Village Hotels. The complaint focuses on the unlawful use of agency labour during industrial action by workers.

 

Workers at the Glasgow-based hotel have participated in ongoing strike action since 28 November. Unite members unanimously supported taking industrial action in the dispute over jobs, pay and conditions.

 

Unite has received job advert information which indicates that employment agency – Mint People - provided temporary workers to directly replace striking workers. This is clearly against the law.

 

The union has requested that the department of business and trade urgently investigate and take enforcement action as appropriate. Village Hotels sought to recruit agency workers through the agency to undertake roles including pub and grill staff and night porters.

 

Unite has further written to the managing director of Mint People Agency to put on record its concerns over the unlawful deployment of agency labour during industrial action.

 

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "The revelations that Village Hotels has sought to cover roles performed by striking workers through the illegal use of agency must be urgently investigated by all relevant government agencies.

 

“Village Hotels is an incredibly wealthy business, but it is currently behaving like a rogue employer.

 

“Unite continues to fully support the Village Hotels workers in Glasgow in their ongoing battle for fairness and decency in the workplace.”

 

In its most recent accounts, VUR Village Hotels Ltd posted a profit after tax of £182 million. Village is a subsidiary of the American private equity firm Blackstone, which acquired the business in 2024 and reported revenues of $13.23bn last year.

 

Regional co-ordinating officer Alison Maclean said: “Village Hotels has shown contempt for its workforce by ignoring reasonable calls from workers for equal pay and the real living wage, and they have now crossed a legal line by attempting to undermine staff during lawful industrial action.”

 

“Unite has formally escalated this matter to the secretary of state and demanded an urgent investigation into what constitutes illegal conduct."

 

In August 2025, Village CEO, Gary Davis, stated that, "The great thing about being with Blackstone is money is not a problem”, yet the company continues to refuse the workers the real living wage for workers of all ages which is equivalent to just 39 pence extra per hour. 

 

ENDS 

 

Notes to editor

 

The supply and use of agency labour to cover the work of employees participating in official industrial action is prohibited under regulation 7 of the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003, made pursuant to section 5 of the Employment Agencies Act 1973. 

 

The High Court judgment in Unison & Others v Secretary of State for Business and Trade [2023] EWHC 1781 (Admin) confirmed that the attempted removal of this prohibition was unlawful and that the ban remains fully in force.

 

For media enquiries please contact Andrew Brady on 07810157922.

 

Email andrew.brady@unitetheunion.org   Unite Scotland is the country’s biggest and most diverse trade union with around 150,000 members.