Union urges Whitbread to 'reconsider' 1,500 redundancies in Dunstable headquarters protest

The employees and members from Unite the Union and Citizens UK criticised the Premier Inn and Beefeater owner during Whitbread’s annual shareholders meeting.

Kevin Reynolds, Unite’s hospitality coordinator, said: "They're keeping us completely in the dark. We were protesting against the potential 1,500 redundancies. The redundancies were announced at the end of April, now the workers themselves only found out by the press, and we're pretty confident that the company has known about this move for months."

A spokesperson for Whitbread said denied this, saying that staff were told at 7am on the day.

They explained: “We do not accept these allegations. We have a comprehensive and transparent collective consultation process, and are engaging directly with elected representatives and the individuals potentially impacted. The consultation process is still ongoing and as part of this we are seeking to find alternative opportunities wherever possible through the roles created by this programme and our existing recruitment process that makes c.15,000 hires each year.

"We expect to retain a significant proportion of those who wish to remain with us and are providing dedicated support to our teams.”

The union called for workers to be paid the living wage and for the company to reconsider the decision to axe these jobs.

Kevin added: “We hope they reconsider and we want them to properly engage with us in the workforce. Don't just bulldoze it through.”