Campaigning For Fair Treatment Of Betting Shop Staff

As Affinity’s membership continues to grow in the betting industry, it’s becoming quite clear that many of the betting companies are systematically failing staff.

• Recently, we took up a case where a company stopped a member of staff’s pay for no good reason whatsoever (until we intervened and forced the company to pay what was owed).

• We’ve seen another company behave in a way that suggests it thinks the legal rights of disabled staff can safely be ignored.

• We’ve tackled numerous cases of innocent members of staff being treated as scapegoats for company shortcomings, particularly when it comes to AML failures.

• Another member was disciplined after he himself was subject to an unprovoked racist attack; we’re preparing his case for the Employment Tribunal so a Judge can scrutinise the actions of his employer. Our member will win the case.

• The same member was talked out of reporting the attack to the police when his Area Manager said it could lead to trouble.

• Another member has been subjected to disciplinary action for a Think 21, failure even though the company’s own HR staff said disciplinary action wasn’t justified.

These cases are just the tip of the iceberg and betting shop members need us to take decisive action to ensure they’re treated fairly at work and their legal rights are protected. Affinity will be campaigning hard with the betting shop chains and the Gambling Commission to prevent abuse of staff and defend your rights under the law.

We Need Your Help

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be issuing short surveys to members on key issues, so we can gather your views and get more information. It will take no more than 5 minutes to give us your feedback and you can complete the surveys on your phones. The surveys will be anonymous and we won’t publish anything that could identify you.

The surveys will be an important next step in gathering evidence of the treatment betting shop staff receive and the shoddy way many are treated.

Our first survey covers age verification; you can submit your responses via the following link:

https://www.research.net/r/ageverification2022

If you have opted into receiving text messages, we will also send you this by text message.

Reporting Other Issues At Work

If you need individual help or advice with a problem at work, please do contact the Union’s 24 hour Advice Team on 01234 716005 or email 24hours@workaffinity.co.ukright away. It’s essential that you contact us as soon as you think a problem might arise, not when you have been charged with a disciplinary offence. We can do much more to protect you if we’re in action from the start of an issue.

If you’ve got something to report about the conduct of your employer, particularly breaches of the law, you can email us in confidence at inconfidence@workaffinity.co.uk. Your identity will be protected. Speak to us before you do anything else.