Salt Social People is based in Newcastle upon Tyne. Our core team lives on Tyneside and Wearside, so a Quayside hotel, a Grey Street bar or a marquee in Northumberland gets people who know the door, the bus and the last Metro.
Newcastle has more good venues than it has good staff on a Saturday night. The Quayside and Grey Street trade hard from Thursday to Sunday. Ouseburn and Jesmond fill with private hires and pop-ups. Across the river, Gateshead runs arena shows and touring productions that need bars staffed in a hurry and cleared just as fast. The North East also carries a long tail of country-house weddings in Northumberland and the Tyne Valley, where the nearest spare waiter is forty minutes away.
The people who work those shifts are often students, graduates staying on, and career hospitality staff who left an agency that paid the minimum and never rang back. We recruit from that pool one person at a time. Interview, two references, a paid trial shift alongside a founder. Then they are offered work and choose what they accept. The result is a smaller team who turn up because they said they would.
Newcastle city centre, Gateshead, North and South Tyneside, Sunderland, Durham and Northumberland are home ground. No travel charge inside 15 miles of the worker's base, which covers almost every booking on Tyneside and Wearside. Teesside and the Northumberland coast are quoted with travel at cost, shown as its own line.
Most agencies fill a North East job by sending as many bodies as the budget allows at minimum wage. We ask how few excellent people the job actually needs, and pay them £14.00 an hour plus holiday to do it. Three well-briefed people on a bar of eight taps outperform six who have never seen the venue and were told the postcode by text at 4pm.
Every person is briefed twice before your event: once in writing 48 hours out, with the venue, door, transport, uniform, service style, allergens and your on-site contact, and once by phone three hours before start. They photo check-in on arrival. If anyone is not right, tell us in the first hour and there is no charge for them.
Newcastle and the North East are charged at the national rate. There is no regional uplift. The only uplifts we apply anywhere are for London, the festive period, bank holidays and New Year's Eve, and they are printed below.
| Tier | We pay them | You pay us |
|---|---|---|
| CoreBar staff, waiting, runners, kitchen porters, event crew, stewards, cloakroom, admissions | £14.00 + 12.07% holiday | £25.00 |
| SkilledCocktail bartenders, baristas, fine-dining and box waiters, hosts, brand ambassadors, team leaders | £16.50 + holiday | £28.00 |
| LeadSupervisors, event managers, chefs de partie | £20.00 + holiday | £34.00 |
| Senior chefSous chefs, head chefs | £24.00 + holiday | £40.00 |
Every client booking carries the same five guarantees, written into our terms of business.
Written, itemised, ex VAT, 8am to 8pm every day. Three hours outside that.
Your account manager's mobile is on the booking confirmation, answered on any day we have people working.
Anyone not right? Tell us in the first hour. No charge for them and a replacement on the way.
New clients get one person for one four-hour shift free on their first booking. See what you are buying.
Names confirmed within two hours of booking. If we cannot fill a position we say so at booking, never on the day.
Same day is often possible on Tyneside because our core team lives here. We confirm within two hours whether we can fill it and who is coming. Short notice never changes the price.
Yes. No travel charge within 15 miles of the worker's base, which covers most of Tyneside and Wearside. Further out, travel is quoted at cost as its own line and agreed before you book.
Yes. We supply Skilled-tier fine-dining and box waiters at £28 an hour ex VAT, Core bar and concourse staff at £25, and a Lead at £34 to run the room. Names are confirmed within two hours of booking.
They are our people, engaged on PAYE zero-hours terms, who accept or decline each shift we offer. Pay, holiday pay, pension and right-to-work checks are handled by us, so you carry no status risk.
Four hours per person per shift. There is no minimum number of people, so one cocktail bartender for four hours is a normal booking.
Or start at the home page for the whole rate card, the instant estimate and how we take people on.
Your brief lands with Tasmyn or Liam, not a queue. A written quote within 60 minutes (8am to 8pm) and a call if anything needs clarifying. A named mobile is given to every client at booking.
Every person paid through our PAYE payroll, so you carry no status risk. Right-to-work checks before day one. Employers' Liability £10m, Public Liability £10m. Certificates with your first confirmation.
Keep them. Use us for the shifts they cannot fill, or the ones that matter most. Overflow is where most first clients start.
Short on people for a big weekend? We supply overflow to other agencies on the same published terms.