We have entered a public dispute against the management of a number of Subway branches in Brighton - motto ‘Eat Fresh!’ - after a former worker approached Brighton SolFed for support.

The worker was sacked without notice in July and is owed a considerable sum in contractual notice pay, holiday entitlement, overtime and for working a so-called training week in which no formal training was given and no prior indication that he was expected to give his labour for nothing but pure Subway profit. The worker tried to resolve these and other issues while in work by taking to the management and the appropriate authorities but, as we’ve heard so often before, this achieved nothing. Shockingly, the worker’s wife was offered a position at Subway Brighton which she declined after providing her ID, and instead had her national insurance number stolen and used illegally by Subway Brighton for 10 months.

The worker was also harassed into giving up a lot of the holiday leave he was entitled to and has a recording of the conversation in which the owner tells him that Subway Brighton isn’t ‘big enough’ to offer the lawful requirement. The management added insult to injury in a very literal sense by accusing the worker of engineering a workplace injury in which a ceiling collapsed on him while mopping up after a broken drinks dispenser. Their compassion overwhelms us. We supported the former worker to approach the owner with a demand letter and an offer to enter discussions to resolve the issues informally and amicably but, needless to say, the owner wouldn’t talk to us. This was after the worker, in a gesture of goodwill and conciliation, dropped a claim for compensation for having his livelihood snatched away and for the resulting in economic hardship for him and his family. Instead, we received an email from their solicitor the same day to make a derisory offer of compensation, denying all of the former worker’s demands and threatening us with legal action if we went ahead with a public campaign. Interestingly, the solicitor would not address the national insurance number theft issue, stating that Subway Brighton could not locate their records of this and so could not investigate further. How convenient for them.

We have visited Subway Brighton’s main office several times but the owner is still refusing to talk with us, while the solicitor’s stance remains immovable and threatening. Together with the worker, Brighton SolFed are now putting in place an escalation strategy, and have collected testimonies from several former workers at Subway Brighton confirming similarly shameful employment practice. We will not be deterred by threatening legalistic jargon, and during the conflict intend to support other workers at Subway Brighton by raising awareness of their rights and discussing any issues they have – ‘an injury to one is an injury to all’!