Tips no Caribbean dream
Theresa May this week announced plans to stop restaurant owners raiding tips left by customers, promising that 100% of gratuities will go to staff.
But no detail about how the clampdown would work was given, leaving open the possibility that some restaurants could find ways around any changes to the law.
Unite the Union regional officer Dave Turnbull said: “This is a great win for hospitality workers and Unite’s fair tips campaign, but before we start popping the champagne corks, we need to be sure that the Government’s new legislation stops all tipping and wage abuses, leaving no loopholes.”
Take the Caribbean food chain Turtle Bay, which can honestly already claim that staff keep 100% of tips.
However, its “fair share policy” states: “We redistribute 30% of waiting staff’s tips, calculated as 3% of the respective waiting staff’s sales, to the wider team in the form of enhanced wages.” The maximum taken from waiters is £25.
Not surprisingly, many are not happy with this “table levy” scheme.
One waitress told the Mirror: “It is souldestroying to walk home on a night knowing that you’ve walked out with basically nothing in tips.
“It is nice to think that a law will change all this for us, but I don’t believe it.
“If they want to make it easier to keep their kitchen staff, don’t take my money – just pay staff better wages.”
Turtle Bay responded through its lawyers Carter-Ruck, but since their letter is marked “Not for Publication” they’ve made it rather hard for me to put across their side.
But the letter amounts to them insisting that the table levy scheme is fair, complies with employment regulations, staff are told about it when they join, and if they don’t like the scheme they don’t have to take the job.