Draughts staff to strike: ‘We are not going to quiet-quit’
Workers at London board game bar Draughts will go on strike every Saturday this month, calling for an end to QR code ordering and zero-hour contracts.
The walkouts will happen every Saturday this month – 4, 11, 18 and 25 October – by workers at Draughts’ Waterloo and Stratford branches.
The bar staff and servers, who are members of trade union United Voices of the World (UVW), previously went on strike in August on the basis that management refused to engage with their demands.
These included ending zero-hour contracts and last-minute rota changes; providing fair rotas with proper notice and fixed-hour contracts; paid on-site training; licensed security staff for busy evening shifts; and getting rid of the QR code ordering system, which they said results in lost tips and also undermines their staffing skills.
A bar worker at Draughts and a UVW member, named Brune, said: “We are trying to let them know that we are not going to just roll over or quiet-quit, like a lot of people have suggested.
“We are not going to simply accept that because this is a hospitality job we don’t deserve to be able to plan our lives, to be able to rely on the money that we can project when we see the rota that we have, and simply that we can expect to be treated like normal human beings.”
The staff have warned they will ‘escalate further’, if management continues to rearrange renovation work around the strike action.
Draughts opened the Stratford branch last month (September), marking its third London location alongside Hackney and Waterloo.
Petros Elia, general secretary of UVW, added: “These workers are showing incredible determination. Hospitality bosses think they can get away with zero-hours contracts, unsafe conditions, and cutting pay through apps – but Draughts staff are proving them wrong.
“If management keeps dodging negotiations our members will only escalate. This fight is bigger than one bar: it’s part of a growing movement of hospitality workers who refuse to accept poverty wages and precarity. UVW will back them all the way until they win.”
Many bars in London adopted QR codes as a way to stay afloat by maintaining contactless ordering during the Covid-19 pandemic, when social distancing was introduced.
The Spirits Business has reached out to Draughts Bar for comment
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