Andy Burnham calls on hospitality firms to sign up to employment charter

Andy Burnham has called on the hospitality industry to work more closely with local politicians to improve skills and employment standards coming out of the pandemic.

The mayor of Greater Manchester was interviewed by UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls as part of the latest Master Innholders webinar, ‘Hoteliers – battered but not beaten'.

Burnham said hospitality and nightlife would play a "massive" part of the region's recovery, but asked businesses to support him in improving employment practices.

"I know in your industry there will be some people who choose to have the most flexible form of employment because it works for them, but there are others for whom that makes life very, very hard indeed," he said.

"We feel coming out of the pandemic that there is a need to raise employment standards, more secure employment, a real living wage.

"I know it's tough to say that to your sector, given everything you've been through, but I think in the end it does build more productive businesses [with] a very strong sense of team spirit with them."

Burnham encouraged hospitality firms to sign up to the Greater Manchester Good Employment charter, a voluntary scheme which raises standards throughout the city region using criteria including payment of the real living wage of £9.50 per hour.

He said improving vocational skills and training was one of his priorities as mayor and encouraged firms to post any vacancies on the local Greater Manchester Apprenticeships and Careers System (GMACS) job boards.

Burnham also pledged to improve public in transport Greater Manchester, which he said "held back" many hospitality businesses in its current state.

The mayor said hospitality had "stepped forward" during the pandemic as a more unified voice and would emerge even stronger than before.

He said: "Things will get even better. Nightlife in Greater Manchester, for all the trauma that everyone's been through and sadly some businesses lost along the way, will be even better coming out of it and will remain absolutely at the heart of what we think is important as a city region.

Burnham added: "[Hospitality] is part of the health recovery of the nation. Something has happened over the past year in UK hospitality and we need to keep building it coming out of the pandemic, changing the streetscape together, changing transport, lifting skills standards, it could be exciting…I think we will have a better hospitality sector in the UK in a couple of years time because of what we've done to get through this and innovate."

Previous events in the Master Innholders' series saw education secretary Gavin Williamson and culture secretary Oliver Dowden interviewed by Nicholls.