Staff at London’s first board game cafe, Draughts, prepare to strike over zero-hour contracts, ‘erratic scheduling’ and security concerns

London’s first board game cafe, Draughts, is facing strike action from staff who claim the business is ignoring their concerns about issues including unfair contracts, having shifts cancelled at short notice and a lack of security at one of its premises.

The vast majority of workers at Draughts, which operates a trio of cafes in the UK capital, joined the United Voices of the World union en masse in May to protest against what they see as falling standards for both staff and customers at the decade-old business.

UVW says, “Draughts Bar was meant to be a haven of connection, creativity, and community – a place where first dates, old friends, families and total strangers could share a table and a game.

“But behind the scenes, workers are facing slashed hours, erratic scheduling, and unmanageable workloads – all with little notice and even less consideration.

“The staff at Draughts Bar aren’t just employees – they’re the soul of the bar. They’ve built the warm, welcoming atmosphere that made Draughts a standout in the growing world of competitive socialising.

“Instead of fulfilling its mission to be a ‘trailblazer in competitive socialising’ and a hub for all kinds of people, Draughts appears to be becoming like a profit-driven conveyor belt, where staff say they are being treated like cogs in a machine, not people with lives, commitments, and basic rights.”

Union members have put together a series of demands, including employing staff on fixed-hour contracts rather than their current ‘zero-hour’ ones, which allow Draughts to offer shifts as and when they see fit.

They are also campaigning for a minimum of 24 hours’ notice before any proposed shift changes, and for rotas published with a minimum of three weeks’ notice, rather than staff finding out their shifts just one or two days in advance.

Staff member Brune said Draughts has been known to cut shifts just a few hours before employees are due to show up for work, or even while staff were on their way to the cafes.

She said, “We’re trying to unionise because we share the same feeling of being exploited, not being listened to.

“It’s a repetitive thing that we’ve gathered from the people that have been here for longer than us, that management has this approach to things where they ignore it, make things worse, wait for people to kind of get used to it, and then gradually, essentially decrease the level of happiness of everybody and the level of service.”

Other demands include having security on-site from 7pm to handle “difficult situations” caused by one of the cafe’s tunnel-based location, reintroducing the ability to book unpaid time off through the rota system, and a return to table service by undoing the shift to using QR codes at tables to order.

Brune said, “Our income really depends on service charge where we work, which is being completely removed and ignored by this QR code system.”

BoardGameWire has contacted Draughts co-founder Nick Curci for comment and context on issues raised by the union members, how the company is addressing them and what the impact of any changes would be on the business, but is yet to receive a response.

UVW told BoardGameWire, “A lot of union-busting has been going on, they have ignored demands and they have ignored attempts to negotiate.

“After ignoring our emails, the workers led a march to deliver a letter of demands to the bosses and were locked out.

“Since then, they have had multiple captive audience meetings (forcing workers to listen to their anti-union narratives).

“They have also dismissed a union member following a notice of intention to ballot which we consider unlawful trade union victimisation.”

That dismissal refers to kitchen worker Awed Nur, who UVW says was dismissed midway through his shift the day after the union notified management of the upcoming strike ballot.

UVW says Nur was “unceremoniously” fired despite a spotless record and no prior concerns being raised about his performance, claiming Draughts cited a reduced need for staffing hours as the justification.

The union said, “Awed was on a zero-hour contract. If shifts truly needed to be cut, there was no reason to sack him outright. It’s clear to us this was a targeted act of retaliation for union organising.”

It added, “UVW is standing by Awed and fighting back. We’ve launched legal proceedings, including a rare and urgent application for interim relief – an emergency legal measure that, if successful, would require Draughts to reinstate Awed immediately. Our record in winning these applications speaks for itself – and we intend to see this through.”

UVW said it expecting a positive result from its strike ballot when the process closes over the next two to four weeks.

Draughts launched its first cafe in Hackney, East London in 2014 after raising more than £20,000 through a Kickstarter campaign. It expanded to the railway arches in Waterloo in 2018 and opened a second East London location in Haggerston in 2019.

The company describes itself on its website as “a trailblazer in Competitive Socialising, redefining board games for a modern audience”, saying its venues have “brought together a melting pot of diversity, from avid gamers to nervous beginners, from first dates to lifelong friends & visiting families”.

Draught’s FAQ adds that staff members are available to suggest and instruct on which games to play, but workers say that assurance is proving difficult to keep amid staffing cuts and overwork.

Staff member Beck said, “It’s a workplace worth fighting for. People come to play games, we want it to be fun.

“It used to be fun when we had time to recommend and teach games. We don’t have time to even, you know, run the place as a restaurant any more.

“So we’re basically fighting for what Draughts used to be: the spirit of playing, and being able to provide a really fun experience for our customers, and a liveable working environment for ourselves.”

The union activity mirrors that of workers at New York board game cafes Hex & Company, The Brooklyn Strategist and The Uncommons, who last week celebrated the ratification of their first union contract after nearly 18 months of acrimonious negotiations with the business owners.

Employees from the five cafes successfully unionised their workplaces via elections between September and December 2023, becoming Tabletop Workers United, after May and Freeman had refused to voluntarily acknowledge worker unions despite support from the vast majority of staff.