London casino employees stick at 5%

Members of the T&G general union at the Claremont Casino in London are to receive increases of 5% on basic pay under a settlement negotiated this month.

T&G regional organiser Rose Keeping said the company's offer, which "recognised the need to keep pace with inflation", was overwhelmingly accepted in a ballot of members.

The increase, which applies to 100 employees across the company, will raise the hourly wage for waiting staff to £6.18 plus tips - the first time their basic earnings have topped £6 an hour. Chefs will see their hourly rates increase to between £11.93 and £15.45, while salaries for gaming staff now range from £9.47 (for trainees) to £13.91 (senior dealers) per hour.

* Fellow T&G members employed by Grosvenor Casinos, which owned the Claremont until last year, have gone on strike for a second time in their fight for a similar pay increase.

Croupiers, valets, restaurant workers and cashiers at four London casinos - the Victoria, the Connoisseur, London Park Tower and Gloucester Sporting Club - staged a 24-hour walkout on 25/26 January in protest at the company's lack of progress in resolving their pay claim.

"Our members need an improvement on the 3.5% the company imposed on them at the beginning of January," Rose Keeping explained, "especially in the light of inflation now at 4.4%." She added that that the cost of living in London is widely thought to be rising even faster: "Our members are still struggling to cope with significant increases in electric and gas bills together with council tax and increases on mortgages and borrowing in one of Europe's most expensive cities."