Restaurant boss who stood up for badly treated waitress wins praise
A LAW firm has launched an investigation after allegations emerged that senior members of its staff treated a Cardiff restaurant waitress badly.
As reported in Saturday’s Western Morning News, the 22-year-old served the group of six from law firm Ince at the Cora restaurant, where they spent £1,000.
Chef and owner Lee Skeet, who was based in Cornwall, revealed that his waitress was talked down to, disrespected and touched unwantedly by the group, so he decided to give her the money from the group’s £1,000 bill.
Mr Skeet said he had initially intended to give the money back, minus £100 as he said the group had not tipped, and ask them never to return to his restaurant. But he later decided to give it to the waitress, and shared a screenshot of the email he sent to one of the customers, complaining about their behaviour.
Speaking to BBC Radio Wales last week, the waitress said she was “proud” of her boss for “calling out rich people” who behave badly.
She said: “I’m lucky in the fact that my boss has backed me up. I already respected him before but I respect him a lot more now that he’s not accepted that kind of behaviour that hospitality workers, speaking from experience, have always endured.
“It’s not acceptable and it’s about time that people like Lee have made a massive deal about it and not accepted it and not welcomed that behaviour again, stopping the chain of events.”
It has now emerged that law firm Ince said it was aware of allegations and was investigating the allegations against its staff who were the diners at Mr Skeet’s Cardiff restaurant.
Ince has teams of legal and business services professionals based in offices around Europe, the Middle East and Asia, including a legal office on Charles Street, Cardiff.
A spokesman for Ince said: “We have been made aware of allegations
in the media in relation to senior staff attending a dinner on Wednesday evening last week.
“The independent directors have therefore initiated a formal investigation. While it is ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further.”