MacMerry and Abandon Ship workers claim thousands missing from pension pots

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Workers at one of Scotland’s most successful pub chains claim thousands of pounds of pension contributions are missing. MacMerry and Abandon Ship venues are expanding fast across the UK, with the grand opening of a bar in London’s affluent Covent Garden planned for this week.

But the businessmen behind the ventures have been accused of “systematic mistreatment” of dozens of staff in Glasgow and Dundee, with claims of sexual harassment, Covid breaches and missing pay.

The Sunday Mail can reveal that, among the complaints, it is alleged pension contributions taken from workers’ wages have not been paid into the National Employment Savings Trust (Nest) scheme.We have seen the wage slips of multiple employees showing deductions running into hundreds of pounds – but with no corresponding payments into their pensions.The MacMerry chain, run by Phil Donaldson and AJ McMenemy, includes Dundee bars Draffens and Bird And Bear plus The Luchador in Glasgow.The entrepreneurs also operate the Abandon Ship bars in Glasgow and Dundee with Richard Davies.Davies frequently flaunts his luxury lifestyle on social media and his wife Amanda – who models for his Abandon Ship clothing brand – posted pictures of herself on the Brit Awards red carpet on Tuesday night.The new Abandon Ship venue in Covent Garden boasts that it will deliver a “sensory explosion” to well-heeled customers.But 28-year-old Joel Galbraith – a former sous chef at Abandon Ship in Glasgow – is just one of the Scottish employees demanding to know what has happened to his pension contributions.He said: “All the time I was working between September last year and January, deductions were coming off my wages for Nest pension contributions.“I was utterly shocked to find none of