International hotel giant Hilton has cancelled its contracts with three unnamed agencies, and is reviewing its use of agencies in future, after an investigation uncovered illegal practices among some suppliers.

The investigation, instigated by campaign group West London Citizens, found some agencies providing housekeeping staff were falling foul of minimum wage regulations by paying per room cleaned, at a rate below the minimum wage.

Robin Derrett, vice president of human resources at Hilton, told Recruiter: "They weren't abiding by best practice, basic minimums or our contracts, so we terminated those contracts." Hilton now uses just nine agencies.

The company has also introduced an addendum to its contracts, outlining how it expects agencies to act in managing staff in line with best practice.

Hilton is currently reconsidering its use of agencies. Derrett said: "Ultimately we are looking at how we can bring more labour in-house, so we have more control of staff.

"To do that we need to be more able at recruiting in the volumes that the agencies do and for that we are looking at a centralised function.

"We will still use agencies to cover peaks in volume, but we are reviewing those few hotels where the housekeeping is effectively outsourced to agencies," he added.

Derrett was unwilling to disclose the names of those agencies involved.

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