Pubcos warn tied tenants over beer tie dispute
Two of Britain's biggest pub companies, Punch Taverns and Greene King, have fired a warning shot at a group of 3,000 tied pub tenants who are set to be balloted over industrial action by the GMB union.
Earlier this week the GMB sent out 32,000 letters to pub company tenants, urging them to join the union ahead of the ballot, which it could hold as early as next week. It has already brought the Pub Revolution movement, which is protesting against what it sees as the iniquities of the tie, into its membership.
GMB national convenor Paul Maloney told Caterer that the union would propose to switch off the Brulines system, which measures the flow of beer in tied pubs, and encourage tenants to buy their beer outside of the tie, saving 25-30p a pint.
But in a statement, Punch Taverns said: "We accept that the recession is making trading challenging for some of our licensees. In recognition of this, unlike conventional commercial landlords, we continue to invest over £1.6 million every month in financial support for our Partners. So far this year, we have supported over 3000 partners and we would encourage any licensees who are concerned about their business to talk to their Business Relationship Manager.
"We are a publicly quoted company and cannot accept any actions taken in breach of commercial contracts. However, we remain committed to building open and transparent relationships with our Partners. Our business model continues to evolve as we focus on long term sustainable value creation for ourselves and our Partners. We have already made a number of significant and positive changes including the removal of upward only rent reviews and lessee machine share from the rent calculation, the passing on of negative RPI rent reviews, the removal of restrictive covenants and the introduction of a price match commitment on our insurance premiums.
"We continue to work with all interests in the sector towards further improvements in the working of the tied business model."
And David Elliott, managing director of Greene King Pub Partners added: "Greene King has a strong relationship with our licensees built over a long period of time. We would be very disappointed if any of our licensees chose to join such a group as Pub Revolution and we would hope that we could resolve any disputes directly with them."
But Maloney said: "If the big pub companies don't come and talk to the GMB union about how they are going to resolve the plight of the pubs in this country, we would be left with no alternative than to deal with the issue as a trade union dispute."
Meanwhile, legal experts cast doubt on the GMB union's claims that its members would have legal immunity from taking industrial action under trade union legislation.
Gagandeep Prasad, a solicitor with law firm Charles Russell said: "Even if they were employees it would not necessarily be the case that disconnecting Brulines would be permitted under trade union legislation (TULCRA) as protected industrial action - one would need to comply with the legislation and ensure that the action is permitted so there is a risk that individuals would not be protected from disputes or litigation on the matter."
James Dickson, chief executive of Brulines, whose firm posted an 11.3% increase in turnover to £9.9m for the six months to 25 September this week, said: "This is a matter between the pub tenants and the pub companies."
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By Neil Gerrard
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