Waiting staff anger on first anniversary of tips law change
October 1 2010 - Unite the union has described as a 'total failure' the reaction of the hospitality sector to implement a
fair tips system.
Unite has today (Friday 1 October) marked the first anniversary of the change in the tips’ law to demonstrate that waiters and
waitresses are still not getting fair tips.
Dave Turnbull, Unite officer, said:
"Unite has found that one year on from the campaign there are still too many employers who regard tips as a subsidy for low pay and who see the tips and service charge money left by customers as a pot of cash to which they are free to help themselves.
"Unite members working in restaurants, hotels and bars across the country have seen establishments increase the percentage of the service charge they deduct from their pay packets.
"Workers expected their employers to hear the demands of consumers last year to pass all the money they intended for staff to them, instead many businesses have chosen to continue business as usual and profit from the gratuity charges. The government must now act to implement the review of the ‘Tips Code’ that was committed to in order to hold this industry to account, it has been a total failure.
"If the bosses do not do the right thing and pass the tips and service charge money to the waiters and waitresses then consumers will lose faith in this sector."
Waiting staff will carry placards and wear t-shirts outside the government’s business department in their campaign to demonstrate that the tips system in restaurants, hotels and bars still denies them the fair tips they fought for.
Friday 1 October marks one year since the government was forced to close the loophole in the minimum wage legislation which allowed bosses to take the tips customers left for staff, but the situation has not improved for many waiters and waitresses.
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