Sexual harassment in the hospitality industry: Workers speak out over treatment

Bryan Simpson, the Unite union and Better Than Zero organiser, describes hospitality as “the most upsetting industry” he has come across over sexual harassment in Scotland. "We know from our members,” he says, “that sexual harassment in the hospitality industry is rife. From bars to hotels, precarious workers, the vast majority of whom are young women, are being subjected to unacceptable abuse from customers and in some cases colleagues with very little being done against the perpetrator."

In recent months he has heard countless accounts, ranging from verbal abuse through to sexual assault. The stories are often shocking. One woman described how she took a Saturday job in a local takeaway. “The chef,” she said, “would touch my bum behind the counter as he walked past whilst I was serving customers. After two months or so I had enough and told the boss about it and told him I would no longer work for him.”

Earlier this year the manager of Glasgow’s Via Italia café resigned after young female staff complained they were bullied, verbally abused and intimidated at work. Harassment is also common in Scotland’s top restaurants, as one female chef's story below testifies.

Casino workers, too, says Simpson, are frequently abused. “I met one worker who said she was not only verbally abused, on a daily basis, but she was also be groped and sexually assaulted. She has reported that several times to her management and was told by a very senior manager that this was par for the course.”

For those working in hospitality, particularly on the frontline where alcohol is sold, customer harassment is a significant problem. Often women experience their first attack when they are young and vulnerable. Erin, now a political activist, recalls that one of the reasons she left working in pubs and bars was because of how she was treated by the drunken punters, particularly older men.

“I started working in a bar when I was 15, and hadn’t taken in what harassment really was. But it wasn’t the workplace that was the problem, it was the culture among the customers. It was the way that older men would speak to you, saying, ‘You’re looking gorgeous tonight.’ Or having to lean in and collect glasses with a group of men, and have them make a comment about me.”

Efforts are being made to counter this culture. Unite, for instance, have launched a Fair Hospitality charter. “It seeks,” says Simpson, “to transform the hospitality sector alongside the workers within it, by putting industrial pressure on employers to adopt radical sexual harassment policies.”

The union also plan on running educational workshops on consent and sexual harassment over the coming months to give workers “the legal knowledge, organising skills and collective confidence to challenge perpetrators as well as the employers who fail to act".

Also potentially ground-breaking is Labour MSP Daniel Johnson’s proposed bill to protect those working where alcohol is sold from abuse.

“My proposal,” he says, “would create new offences around assault and abuse for retail workers and those who sell age-restricted products. That means it would cover lots of workers in hospitality, including bar staff and door staff. While my bill doesn’t specifically deal with sexual harassment or abuse, it does deal with any kind of threatening or abusive behaviour.”

His aim, he says, is “to highlight the levels of violence and abuse faced by workers in these industries”.

A female chef’s story

"At the age of 17 I was groped and verbally abused by the chefs I worked with. I reported it to my boss and was told that I was easily replaced. I had my top pulled down, my bum slapped and squeezed. I was cornered in the kitchen while I was mopping and there was only me and one of the chefs left in there. He groped me and told me that I really wanted it and stuff. I just hit him and ran. It was horrendously scary.

Later I became a chef, eventually working in some the top Scottish restaurants, and for the next six years I was harassed on a near daily basis. The only places I didn’t get it were family-run restaurants that were run by women. My first job chefing was in a hotel chain and in my first week I was physically abused so many times my sous chef found me crying in the walk-in. Instead of reporting it and telling them off he told me not to wear fancy underwear as they can see it through my clothes and I'm asking for trouble.

I would get guys coming over and humping my face when I was on my knees cleaning out the fridge. If you ever had to get on your knees for anything – say if you dropped your pen – a crotch would be in your face. That was just a given. They do it to other guys too, but when they do it to other guys it’s a dominance thing. But also it’s different when it’s a woman and the man’s your superior, 10 years older. It’s hard because you don’t feel like you can go to anyone.

I ended up telling myself the only way to beat them was to be hard and filthy back. I hated acting this way and I know most female chefs go through this to survive. The worst was my experience of one of the front of house managers at a top Scottish restaurant I worked at. We all went out for drinks after work. He was so out his face on drugs and alcohol he wouldn't take no for an answer and the bouncer who I grew up with had to come over and threatened to chuck him out. I begged him not to as I knew I would bear the brunt of not being up for a laugh.

The front of house manager charged at me and tried to pin me against the bar and grope me and the bouncer grabbed him off me and threw him out. Everyone agreed he went too far but nothing was done about it.

I was also pinned over a solid top stove while this same manager humped me from behind and I was terrified I was going to get burned. He put his hands up my clothes, and I kicked him in the shins and ran. It was full on. It wasn’t just like the odd bum squeeze.

This behaviour is everywhere. It’s just terrifying. Men get harassed too. Particularly if you’re not a man’s man. A gay man. Chefing is also rife with homophobia, and quite often is racist as well.