TGI Fridays axes free meals for staff

TGI Fridays has announced that staff who work a shift longer than 10 hours will no longer receive free meals.

The company stated that staff would instead receive a 50% discount on all menu items, something that all staff received when working less than 10 hours.

Unite Hospitality has launched a petition calling for the company to reinstate free meals which has over 600 signatures at the time of writing.

The petition stated: “Please reconsider the ill judged move to remove fully subsidised staff meals from TGI team members. Hard working staff at TGI Fridays are at the centre of the hospitality experience.

“Without them, TGI Fridays is nothing.In the midst of a cost of living crisis, low paid staff at TGI Fridays will be forced to give up more of their hard earned cash in order to fuel themselves through the day.”

The company has also promised other benefits to staff that include contracted hours guaranteed each week, 1.5x overtime after 48 hours are worked, length of service awards and pension auto-enrolment.

A TGI Fridays spokesperson said: “The benefits on offer at TGI Fridays are among the best in the industry, including 50% off all food items at any time and free soda throughout shifts.

“Additionally, staff are able to bring five family or friends to receive the same discount, which they can use all year round as many times as they wish. This is something we increased from three guests last year in response to the cost-of-living crisis.”

They added: “We have made the decision to remove free shift meals for team members working 10 hours or more to provide more equitable benefits to everyone in our teams. We were aware of a number of staff working incredibly long shifts and we believe this has a negative impact on wellbeing.

“However, we do recognise that these are challenging economic times and this will impact our teams. As part of our ongoing efforts we are exploring a number of other benefits to support our staff. This includes a partnership with Wagestream, the financial wellbeing platform, which will provide all of our team with the opportunity for early access to their pay ahead of planned pay days, as well as retail and leisure discounts, financial coaching and weekly budgeting support.”

TGI Fridays’ parent company Hostmore delayed the publication of its annual results last month as a result of ongoing discussions with its banks.

The company runs around 90 hospitality venues under the Fridays, Fridays and Go and 63rd+1st brands.