10 o'clock and most restaurants go to sleep except those at City road in Cardiff. Amble down the narrow lane dotted with Asian and Middle-eastern restaurants for a quick bite and you realize you are spoilt for choice. But the sprinkle of fairy lights and rich spices that make your stomach grumble is the only bright side of the story of many staff toiling behind the gas stoves and tills.
Neeti*, a 20-something Indian waitress with rich brown hair and golden streaks peeking through them smiles at her customer quickly counting the cash and giving him the change in exchange for a few polite courtesies. A few seconds later her slightly drooping shoulders and an inaudible sigh of relief is the only evidence of her long 11am-10pm shift. But long hours means more money that will help her to pay for her cost of living in the UK. And earning only £5 an hour makes her desperate to get all the hours that she can.
“If you want a job in City Road, you can easily get one. They don't even look at your CV-it is just a mere formality. I was called for training the next day and started off next week even when I knew that the pay was way lower than the National Minimum Wage.”
National minimum wage in Cardiff as of this year is £7.38 an hour for everyone aged between 21-24-year-olds. But life had not been so difficult for Neeti last Christmas when she had been working part-time for a British restaurant-cum-bar. But there went Santa Claus and as the new year celebrations dry-up so do the sales which means that part-time staff like Neeti are easily done away with. With little opportunities left in the market and not enough time to go job-hunting courtesy her university degree, she stumbled into the comfort of zero-hour contracts.
“I used to get paid really well say between £8.38 - £8.50 an hour along with a holiday. But because of my student visa which allowed me only 20 hours of work permit a week, I used to work around 16-18 hours a week and it wasn't a permanent job.” she laments
This, however meant that earning a stable income every week became a laborious process and queue her entry into the Asian restaurants and the rest they say is history. She dabbled in the shifts, saved pennies, and consoled herself that she got free meals and better yet, the kind of ethnic food she was used to during her shift and relief that the wages of more than 20 hours a week added up enough to pay her weekly rent, bills, and other expenses. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Waitressing is not an easy job if your customers make it a difficult process.
“The first Asian restaurant that I worked for, I didn't like the work atmosphere. Most of the restaurants are Asian and it was horrible. Between the customer and staff, the owner always prioritizes the customer at least in front of him and I used to get very frustrated.”
Now, she works at a local grocery store in the city which supplies Asian foods. She still gets under-paid at £5 an hour and has extended her hours somewhat to 45 in a week. But she is relatively happier because of the respect with which she is treated.
“I promised myself that I would never work at a restaurant ever again. Pay is one of the issues but I need to feel 100% safe at my work and most of the time I don't!”
However, Neeti is not the only one in the hospitality business that clogs the capital City. Grangetown, on the other side of the city, is probably the most multi-cultural district littered with more garbage bags crowding the front entrances than restaurants. But some of the few restaurants around the area use similar ingredients of cheap labour and exploitative staff.
Julia* is another 30 something Eastern European woman and a mother of three children. Between managing her household and opening the restaurant every morning, the woman also attends university to improve her English communication skills. But maintaining a balance between her work and home life is easier thought about than done. And more so when she has only some £125 every week to buy food for her husband and children back home.
“I have worked here for close to two years now. You know how difficult it is to leave my kids back home when they return from school with no one to care for them? After all my loyalty to the restaurant, I deserve at least £7 an hour. Is it too much to ask?” she asks.
Whether it is restaurants at the City-road or in Grangetown, these Asian and Middle-eastern dining outlets aren't exactly struggling. They pay their staff by giving them cash-in-hand and this becomes an easy way for them to evade taxes. And if the number of restaurants both Asian and Middle-eastern that have opened up in Cardiff and are continuing to are any indication then it surely is a big business with more and more authentic food getting popular among the western crowds. But under-paying the staff can be a recipe for disaster if they don't start providing at least basic wages to their employees.
