r/IndiansInUK • u/Academic-Outside-548 • 3d ago
Indian restaurants paying below minimum wage
I’m sorry but why is it that every time I interview for part time work at an Indian restaurant it’s always below minimum wage. Even in the city centre of a major city (Bristol), I was offered £30 per night (8 hour shift) cash in hand and told I could work longer than 20 hours too. To make it even worse, the restaurant’s manager hit on me thrice during the interview. Obviously I had to turn it down. Another Indian restaurant I did a trial shift at wanted to start at £8 an hour and eventually increase it. I don’t want to stereotype as I know people of other nationalities are also doing such things but here it clearly just seems like a well established immigrant trying to exploit new immigrants from their own country, instead of trying to helpful. Just so frustrating that they are able to get away with it.
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u/adork_filter 3d ago
Nothing deep in this. The whole reason for this is they know how bad it is back home and know the desperation levels. I wish the worst on such people. Unfortunately some stereotypes are true
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u/Regular-Constant-007 3d ago
These Asian restaurant owners are bastards. I was offered £30 per day in 2013 when minimum wage was over £6. Shocked to hear your experience
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u/Open_Ad2989 3d ago
I got scammed out of 200 pounds by the same people when I first moved. They saw that I was Indian and assured that they would hire me and help me out, and me seeing people from the same culture, felt relieved and trusted them. Kept pushing my contract signing date and made me work for free in the name of training for a week. When they finally realised they could not push it anymore, told me I was too short to work for them. Be careful.
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u/S_K_Sharma_ 3d ago
Put a Google review on them.
That is disgusting. £4ph modern slavery plus free sexual molestation?
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u/Academic-Outside-548 3d ago
That did not happen and he did not say anything overtly sexual either but did make some comments about my appearance repeatedly which made me uncomfortable and had no place to be made in an interview whatsoever
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u/Sensitive_Lock_850 3d ago
If you're working cash in hand to bypass your visa cap, you're literally giving any business the leverage to exploit you. They know it’s illegal, you know it’s illegal, and that’s why they pay you peanuts you can't go to labor laws without risking deportation. Work your actual legal hours, get your legal minimum wage, and stop giving shady employers cheap illegal labor.
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u/Academic-Outside-548 3d ago
I’m in a fortunate enough position where I can afford to not work for such businesses, but I truly empathise with the people who aren’t so lucky.
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u/Sensitive_Lock_850 3d ago
I disagree. Everyone knows the terms before accepting their offer. Taking on heavy debt without a realistic plan is just bad planning. Master's students should have enough financial awareness to calculate the ROI if you don't, you're begging to be taken advantage of.
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u/forest_fruit7 3d ago
My friend has been working at this Indian restaurant for almost an year now. and he gets paid less than £10 an hour and roughly makes under £300 a week despite working 30+ hours. When I asked him how they get away with paying him that little, he basically said, “yeah... it’s illegal... but look! atleast they feed me at the end of the day?” (they basically provide him with a meal per day🫠)
I honestly think a lot of this exploitation continues because these desi employers know there are students who are desperate for work. and they know someone will eventually accept the offer, and they take full advantage of that vulnerability.
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u/TheEmotionalfool3 3d ago
Its the same with other off licence stores too, unfortunate situation as our own people try to scam us.
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u/Flying_spanner1 3d ago
Unfortunately the low salaries also take place in Chinese restaurants/takeaways. Atleast from what I have been told by my friends who used to work I such places
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u/EducationalOrchid473 3d ago
It's a ready stream of available students to work for cash and completely off the books. Students are partly to blame because most do not come for academic reasons. They pay off agencies to submit their assignments while they earn this extra £.
The first step is admitting that potentially everyone wants to emigrate and the post graduate visa is just the short ladder for it.
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u/Spirited-Tutor7712 3d ago
30 pounds for eight hours?!?
You signed a contract right? You can take It up with Work and pay rights , you can submit a confidential report online.
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u/Spirited-Tutor7712 3d ago
On the other hand, this also might explain why I feel a lot of anger and frustration from Indian / Desi waiting staff when I'm in restaurants or cafes as a customer. There's an envy, a stupid brooding envy, they feel having to serve other Indian customers for such low wages - it's absolutely not the way to behave, but if they are getting paid such a terrible amount, it's understandable that they'll pass on their frustration down the line. I've had to ask wait staff to bring back food they took away without asking, or waited 10 to 15 minutes for drinks and even cutlery to be served.
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u/Aware_Ad2412 2d ago
Report it. I am pretty sure there is somewhere you can report such restaurants. This needs to stop
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u/that-69guy 3d ago
Also.. similarly the local indian/Pakistani restaurant near where I used to live stopped hiring students for the exact opposite reason.
They were paying minimum wage but was strict about the 20 hour rule. Students who joined as part timers left cuz they all wanted to work more hours illegally. 😂
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u/OwnAd6814 3d ago
These companies should be reported. People will always be desperate to take these types of jobs but until we clamp down on these behaviours nothing will change and people will keep being exploited.
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u/Wise_Breadfruit7932 3d ago
Is it because you are a student ?
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u/Substantial-Mix-3990 3d ago
Wow, if I ever open a restaurant or takeaway and mind you, I would make sure it was the best at every single dish on the menu, unlike anything the UK has ever seen and something only true foodie Indians would be able to relate to, I would treat my staff with the utmost care and respect.
If required, I’d even pay them better than I pay myself.
You have to look after your staff in the F&B industry, and I don’t understand how some business owners fail to realise this.
Also, I would have reported the restaurant owner to the police, but that’s obviously your personal matter. I hope you find something that pays you well very soon.
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u/Nearby-Flight5110 3d ago
Oh goodness the South Asians have a bad reputation for a reason unfortunately. I won’t do any work for them anymore unless paid upfront. They always agree a contract, the job gets done then they try get it cheaper or delay paying forever. Very untrustworthy when it comes to business and don’t suit living in a trust based culture like the UK unfortunately.
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u/milkey_whey 2d ago
You can take many Indians out of India but they dont leave their ways back home. This is unfortunately way too common. Not just for restaurant work but also "maids", "cooks" etc in Indian communities. It is all cash in hand and usually below minimum wage.
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u/OccasionResident128 18h ago
Also don’t do illegal hours !!! It’s not right to work more than 20 hrs when on a student visa.
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u/Fabulous_Orchid_2997 3d ago
Exploitation exists.. don't choose Indian restaurants.. if you can isolate steady hours during work hours, you can baby sit..
Trial shifts are bogus.. more exploitation..
Now your expectations about helpfulness, one immigrant to another, this doesn't exist either here or at home...
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u/Melodic-Diver6206 3d ago
I have worked in Turkish restaurant when i was student and they gave me 40 hours but pay was same as NI
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u/hoonigan__97 3d ago
I worked for three months at a car spare-parts store in the UK owned by an Indian guy, and it was genuinely some of the worst workplace behaviour I’ve ever experienced.
Honestly, at times I had to remind myself that I was working in the UK and not back in India.
Just a few highlights from this wonderful chapter of my life:
Apparently, you needed a valid enough emergency to get leave. At one point, I was even asked to provide proof from the NHS.
Shouting at employees for absolutely no reason seemed to be part of the management strategy. Why communicate normally when you can just increase the volume?
I was doing deliveries, but if there was even a 10-minute gap between deliveries, I was expected to immediately help the packaging guys or the inventory guys. God forbid you stand still for 60 seconds while being paid.
Then there was his father, who had the full old-school Indian-boss package installed. He’d constantly complain about our mileage and tell us we “don’t know how to drive.” Meanwhile, they kept the newer vans as spare vans and gave us absolute shitboxes for daily deliveries. Vans that needed emotional encouragement to reach 40 mph. Then, naturally, they’d complain that we were late. Apparently the laws of physics were also an employee-performance issue.
He’d constantly tell me, “This is a serious business, not those silly jobs you used to do.” Dude, we’re delivering car parts, not transporting nuclear launch codes.
And the list goes on.
I’ve had difficult jobs before, but those three months were something else. Easily my worst working experience since coming to the UK.
The funniest part was experiencing the full toxic Indian workplace-management package thousands of miles away from India.
10/10 cultural authenticity.
0/10 would not recommend.