COFFEE shop chain Tim Hortons has claimed it has been the victim of fake job adverts offering posts at a new Glasgow store which pay below the minimum wage.
Chris Stephens, Glasgow South West SNP MP, wrote to the firm after he was alerted to the adverts on job website Networx Recruitment with vacancies for ‘restaurant team members’ at £5 an hour.
The adverts for its new outlet at Silverburn in Pollok, state “The world famous Tim Hortons is finally venturing to the UK. Lucky us.”
It then states the pay for the posts at the new store is £5 an hour.
Only 16 and 17-year-olds and apprentices can be paid lower than the £5.60 minimum wage.
Mr Stephens contacted the Canadian firm to clarify the wages and whether the legal requirements of the Minimum Wage are being met.
He also asked for a meeting with management to discuss the firm becoming an accredited Living Wage employer, which would require staff to be paid £8.45 an hour.
He said: “Given Canada’s track record as a bulwark of human rights and progressive values in North America, Tim Hortons ensuring that all staff are paid a decent, humane wage for their labour would be in keeping with Canada’s recent history.
"It would be disappointing if Scotland’s otherwise positive perspective on Canadian commerce and business was to be coloured by sub-standard employment practices."
Time Hortons responded to Mr Stephens, stating: “We always pay the National Minimum Wage and above and have no connection with the job advert in question, it was posted without our permission.”
Mr Stephens alerted the firm to the benefits of paying the Living Wage, which he said included a fall in absenteeism and an improvement in the quality of work and quality of employee.
He added: “The real Living Wage is a win-win for employers, employees, society and shareholders.”
The firm has adverts on other sites offering jobs with pay between £5.60 and £7.50 per hour for restaurant team members. Another site states the jobs pay up to £7.50 an hour.
The national Minimum wage for 18 to 20-year olds is £5.60 and for 25 year olds and over is £7.50.
The firm opened its first UK coffee shop in Union Street in Glasgow last month and then quickly announced another at Silverburn shopping centre.
The first store opened with a fanfare of publicity, men dressed as Canadian Mounties, and giveaways for the first customers, many had queued for hours ahead of the opening.
The Evening Times contacted Networx Recruitment for comment but no one returned our call.