Staff strike for £10.55-an-hour at London club beloved by celebrities
Staff strike for £10.55-an-hour living wage at nightlife king Robin Birley’s Mayfair private club loved by stars including the Clooneys, Margot Robbie, Alexa Chung, Cara Delevingne and Prince William
- 5 Hertford Street has been at the centre of Mayfair’s social scene for decades
- It has long waiting list and has hosted royalty and celebrities at scores of parties
- But kitchen porters at the club say they want more than their £9.50-an-hour
- The club insists it gives its workers a range of benefits and wage will rise soon
One of London’s most exclusive private members clubs is facing an embarrassing row with its kitchen staff, who are going on strike demanding £10.55 an hour.
Migrant workers at the prestigious 5 Hertford Street – which has hosted celebrities and royalty including George and Amal Clooney, Prince William and Cara Delevingne – are set to walk out this week.
The club, which includes celebrity-favourite venue LouLou’s, has been at the centre of Mayfair’s social scene for 30 years and is described by its members as one of small corners of old London still remaining in the city, but by its critics as a pretentious anachronism.
It is owned by so-called ‘king of clubs’ Robin Birley, the son of artistocrat Lady Annabel Goldsmith and Mark Birley, who ran the famous Annabel’s nightclub in Mayfair.
He is the half-brother of socialite Jemima Goldsmith and former Tory MP and failed London mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith.
Kitchen porters at 5 Hertford Street private members club in Mayfair have gone on strike
The club’s LouLou’s venue is beloved of celebrities and royals and has previously hosted Princess Eugenie and Cara Delevingne (left in 2016) and Margot Robbie (earlier this year)
Mr Birley previously ploughed £30million into the club and said in 2016 that he earned £350,000 a year.
His political connections have seen the club dubbed ‘Brexit HQ’ by some in Westminster. The 61-year-old donated £20,000 to Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign and has previously given £25,000 to Ukip and bankrolled Michael Gove’s re-election campaign in 2015.
The club has previously welcomed scores of celebrities and royals, including filmstar Margot Robbie, models Alexa Chung and Bella Hadid, as well as Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice.
But boyband One Direction famously failed to gain entrance in 2013, when they were deemed to be too casually dressed.
This week’s strike comes after the union Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) balloted 10 kitchen porters at the club over possible industrial action and nine voted in favour.
The club is owned by ‘king of clubs’ Robin Birley, dubbed ‘the best connected man in London’
Among the club’s prestigious guests over the years have been Bella Hadid (pictured in 2018) and Alexa Chung (pictured earlier this year)
The union says porters were, until recently, paid only £8.65-an-hour, but their pay was increased to £9-an-hour in June and £9.50-an-hour this month. They want £10.55 an hour and sick pay.
The union’s Henry Chango Lopez said: ‘The kitchen porters have sent a clear message that they will no longer be treated like the dirty dishes they clean.
‘The club can more than afford to pay these workers the London living wage and proper sick pay.
‘If Robin Birley refuses these completely reasonable demands, he will be forced to serve his meals on dirty dishes because those that clean them are out on strike.’
The club insists it offers its workers offers a range of staff benefits ‘well above the industrial norm’, including private medical insurance, 25 days holiday and bank holidays off.
Prince Beatrice was also seen at the club last year, while Lily Allen visited in 2015
Brooklyn Beckham visited a fashion week night in 2018 and Philip Green attended in 2017
A spokesman told The Guardian: ‘We are bemused by the IWGB’s attempt to persuade the tiny proportion of 5 Hertford Street staff it represents to go on strike.
‘We already pay our kitchen porters £9.50 an hour – well above the minimum wage – and that pay rate will increase to the voluntary London living wage of £10.55 at the start of 2020.
‘When their pay reaches that level, we will be one of a tiny proportion of London restaurants paying their kitchen porters the LLW (London Living Wage).’
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