This cafe asks applicants to work 40 unpaid hours - with no guarantee of a job

[dutchman]

Mooboo is under fire from campaigners



A cafe chain is embroiled in a dispute over staff pay which is threatening to reach boiling point.

Tea chain Mooboo, which has an outlet in West Orchards Shopping Centre, is under fire after it emerged would-be employees are being made to complete 40 hours of unpaid work.

An investigation and leaked emails uncovered bosses at Mooboo informing applicants wishing to become “tea artists” that they must complete 40 hours of “training” - but there is no guarantee of a job after completing the work.

The approach has been branded as “exploitation” by campaigners who are calling for Mooboo to pay people for work they complete.

A petition has been set up on the 38degrees website by trade unionist campaigners Better than Zero. Entitled “Mooboo: pay your staff!”, it has attracted more than 14,000 signatures in a week.

Gordon Maloney, from 38 Degrees, said: “The response to the 38 Degrees petition shows that people think this is an outrageous way for Mooboo bubble tea to exploit people looking for work.

“As part of the investigation, 38 Degrees and Better than Zero have tried to reach out to Mooboo on social media to discuss the issue, and have found they are blocking anyone who mentions the 40 hours of unpaid work.

“This is a clear indication that they know this policy is wrong. People power works and with the ever-growing pressure from 38 Degrees members, we hope that an immediate end to this policy is coming.”

Bryan Simpson, from Better than Zero, said: “We were first made aware of Mooboo’s exploitative working practice when several current and former employees contacted the Better than Zero campaign to say that they had done up to 40 hours of unpaid work.

“It is utterly disgraceful that a company with a huge turnover in the millions refuses to even pay the minimum wage. Mooboo is taking advantage of the desperation of young and migrant workers to find work and we will be working with 38 Degrees to take action against the company.

Mooboo specialises in “bubble tea”, an Asian drink containing tea mixed with fruit or milk and chewy tapioca balls or fruit jelly.

The chain has 12 cafes across the UK in Coventry, London, Birmingham, Bradford, Newcastle, Hertfordshire, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow. The firm is currently hiring for roles including ‘tea artist’.

The Telegraph has approached Mooboo for comment.

[rebbonk]

Not on. Pay them the going rate and review them after 40 hours, don't act like cheapskates.

I expect to see more of this as the true rate of unemployment rises.

[dutchman]

The government is to blame because - according to them - if you refuse to take the job you've made yourself 'voluntarily unemployed'.

Also Trinity-Mirror is hardly in any position to judge as they are one the worst offenders.

[Melisandre]

Is it not about time the public took over by sticking together to show these kind of businesses they are not in control by not using these places.

[dutchman]

FarGo Village café owners boycotted by residents confusing them with controversial tea chain MooBoo



The owners of an independent café have claimed that they are being boycotted by angry locals who have confused them with a controversial bubble tea franchise.

Neil and Kristin McCoy-Ward say that they have received hate mail and abuse in their store after news broke that would-be employees at rival café MooBoo were being made to complete 40 hours of unpaid work.

The owners of Bubble Boba in FarGo Village have now been forced to defend themselves by saying they have nothing to do with the West Orchards bubble tea shop.

Neil said: "Local people are mistaking our shop for Mooboo because we also sell bubble tea, but we are totally separate and getting a lot of abuse and negative coverage.

"We are a small local, family run & independent business - we are nothing to do with MooBoo bubble tea."

The 32-year-old told the Telegraph that since the nationwide media coverage of the investigation and subsequent trade unionst petition began last week, locals have been posting abusive messages on their social media pages.

He even claimed that equipment in the shop was broken by a vandal who shouted at passersby to boycott the business.

He said: "We're really upset about it all, especially about last Saturday. Someone came in and broke out big bubble tube. It's a tube with LED lights on, bubbles and fish. We have it because we get a lot of children from Zoe's Place come in - its sensory. We spent £300 on that.

"Someone shouted boycott Bubble Boba and pushed it over. It hit a glass table and water went everywhere".

He added: "Even today we've had three people post on our Facebook page about it. We've replied and had to delete the posts.

"When doing samples, a lady was so rude saying she heard about what we do to our staff. We aren't Mooboo."

According to the owners, the business is now struggling due to the boycott.

He said: "Our sales are massively down and we are having to send staff home from shifts due to lack of customers and people outside saying to boycott our store.

"It is very hard to make a living in Fargo Village as it is, and we have been struggling this last week."

Neil went on to reassure those boycotting the store that his staff, who study at Coventry University, were well treated.

He said: "We pay for all training and pay our staff above minimum wage.

"We even take them out for meals."

The upset owners who have had their business for two years are now asking for residents to stop boycotting them.

Neil said: "We are not affiliated with MooBoo in any way. We are a small, independent, family run business. We have nothing to do with them."

[rebbonk]

It is very hard to make a living in Fargo Village as it is...

From that, I take it that Fargo might not be the success that we are led to believe it is.

[dutchman]

Community rallies behind FarGo Village café mistakenly targeted in hate campaign



The community has rallied behind an independent cafe that was the target of abuse after being mistaken for controversial bubble tea chain,MooBoo.

Neil and Kristin McCoy-Ward, owners of Bubble Boba, were left devastated after passersby began hurling abuse at them after news broke that their rival café had been making would-be employees complete over 40 hours of unpaid work - without guarantee of a job.

The FarGo Village tenants have been financially hit by the misplaced boycott and have even had parts of their shop damaged by angry locals.

However following the Telegraph's article yesterday, the community has offered a hand of support to the couple in repairing damage caused by vandals.

Neil said: "Yesterday was terrible in terms of sales. In financial terms, we took another loss. But it may just be that people wanted to avoid the whole conflict going on and stay away yesterday and they will start coming back in today."

He added: "We have had a very kind offer from a local designer who has started to redesign our shop for us though. He started yesterday and even repaired the wood where the bubble tower caused water damage and he's replacing our beautiful pink seating. He's painting the shop over the next two days.

"We also had someone come in to help repair the bubble tower, he sealed the crack, repaired the leaks, base and pump.

"Now it's just the LEDs that are fried which we need to find someone to help to repair.

"We've also had a kind lady offer to organise bringing in a group of her friends to boost sales and to fundraise for a new bubble tower.

"Other than that, were just keeping optimistic and positive."

His wife Kristin thanked readers and residents for their support during the difficult time for the bubble tea specialists.

She said: "We've had a lot support recently which is amazing and luckily, people are kind of understanding that there's so many different companies of bubble tea and we are one brand."

[dutchman]

Cafe chain Mooboo's u-turn on work for free row



A cafe chain embroiled in a dispute over staff pay has backed down before it reached boiling point.

Tea chain Mooboo, which has an outlet in West Orchards Shopping Centre, came under fire after it emerged would-be employees were being made to complete 40 hours of unpaid work.

In a dramatic u-turn Mooboo revealed it planned to introduce a new training process.

In a statement issued on March 2 Mooboo said: “In view of the recent feedbacks, we are prepared to implement a new training process which all trainees will be paid according to our company set levels once the trainee has entered into our training contract.

“All our branches will implement above new training procedure with immediate effect to all new trainees.”

Mooboo specialises in “bubble tea”, an Asian drink containing tea mixed with fruit or milk and chewy tapioca balls or fruit jelly.

There's a lot of ambiguity and wriggle room in that statement.