A group of workers from Bristol IWW attended the Power Plant Vegan Cafe in Plymouth to deliver a grievance letter to the management on behalf of one of our union members. It is alleged that this member was unfairly dismissed, treated in a way that violated the 2010 Equal Rights Act, and was not provided with a safe working environment.
We have formally invited the management to meet with our member, accompanied by a union rep from the IWW, to a grievance hearing within the next week where we hope in good faith that a fair resolution can be achieved.
Alongside the submission of the formal grievance our member read out the following statement:
“I’m here today to deliver my grievance to Power Plant.
This is regarding issues with an unfair dismissal, direct discrimination and harassment in the workplace, lack of reasonable action by management to provide a safe working environment.
Throughout my time working here I was misgendered and deadnamed. I experienced targeted comments about my appearance, I was ignored for months at a time as a result of asking for action to be taken – as to them this was eaasier than addressing the problem.
I passed up opportunities to seek and receive hormone replacement therapy and was made to feel an insane amount of guilt and shame regarding my identityas a trans non-binary person, due to discrimination and harassment. My mental health and well-being hit rock bottom following their behaviour and in January I was fired with no warning or justification.
I’m delivering this grievance, accompanied by the IWW, in the a true hope that the issues can be resolved and the desire outcomes can be approached. More so, that no other Queer person has to live this experience at the hands of this cafe.”
We are dissapointed that this action today was necessary, especially as this Cafe has been used in the past as a venue for local queer community events. However, the treatment of our member is very serious and we urge the management of Power Plant Vegan Cafe to address these grievances to an appropriate extent, to accept responsibility for their actions and start the process of repairing some of the damage that has been done.
Bristol IWW