restaurant service charge - where it goes

angeldeelite

not sure if this is the right place for this but wondered if anybody on here might be able to answer my question.

I work for a well known hotel chain in the restaurant. There is a mandatory 10% service charge on every bill in the restaurant and bar which gets divided up and added to the monthly wage. I work part-time so get anything from £80 to £110 a month as gratuities on my wage slip.

Was at work last night and my supervisor mentioned the gratuities will be low this month because the hotel's Business Development Manager is putting on a free private dinner for 15 people who she thinks will become big customers in the future and is using the service charge money to pay for it!!!

Surely this has to be against some sort of consumer and employment law?? For one, customers are paying this charge in good faith that it is for the service they received (i'm often asked if we get it back) and you're also ripping off your staff. Does anybody here know more about this?? I work at a newspaper full time so i'm quite tempted to speak to our consumer affairs editor....

Mumto2

I can't help whether it is lawful to do this or not, but I used to waitress some years ago at a very posh restaurant. We used to get the cash tips divi'd out at the end of the evening. The credit card ones were calculated through the month, the owner then paid the credit card service charge out of our tips then gave us the rest :mad: ). Fortuantely we still made good money - it wasn't worth my job to question it.

It bugs me though that the money is given in good faith by diners.

angeldeelite

after more digging around it seems that lawfully, the money is owned by the company and they can distribute it as they please

to use it to pay for other people's dinner though is just outrageous!

LittleVoice

The employer might be able to use the funds they receive as tips for anything they want. However, what is in the contract of employment of staff? Presumably there is something about tips. Even if there is not, there seems to be a "custom and practice" case for saying that the tips have to be used in the way they have been to date - not used to finance a marketing exercise.

brightonman123

this surely should be coming out of any marketing budget, not wages/tips etc. would question this with accounts/personnel dept, if there is one.

or, have a meal there when off duty, and say the dev.manager is paying for it!

GeorgeUK

Pretty sure it is lawful, but it stinks.

A local Indian restaurant i know used to make the staff hand in any tips - uniforms had no pockets. The idea was that the customers were paying for the standard of the food and service - as the company was paying the staff to do a job then the tips were the companies. If the staff weren't doing their jobs properly they wouldn't be employing them.

Cold hearted and i would be cursing them, but i think that's about all you could do.

A_little_stressed!!

I'm interested to know - do you all pay tips? And do you pay 10%?
Also what about a buffet restaurant - all you can eat etc? Do you leave anything?

wymondham

I thought that tips only have a right to be kept by the individual if it was given in cash to the individual directly by the customer - if on the bill at all then it's belongs to the restuarant who are effectively overcharging the customer by 10% and keeping the money for themselves (not necessarily to hand out to staff as you have shown) - nice if you can get away with it - i wonder if I could do this in my industry and it be the "accepted Norm" ? (IT)

If you wish to tip the waiting staff, then customers should just refuse to pay the 10% "service charge" on the bill and give it to the chosen staff directly - perfectly legal!

Never pay service charges in restuarants!!

brightonman123

i normally pay the net amoun (no s/c), and give server a tip (IF food & service was good), and sk them to share total at the end of a shift with the kitchen staff ..

Aloysius60

angeldeelite wrote: »

after more digging around it seems that lawfully, the money is owned by the company and they can distribute it as they please

to use it to pay for other people's dinner though is just outrageous!

This may be so now; but the law can be changed when people speak out. The levying of a service charge stops customers from tipping the service staff - therefore lowering their earning potential. In London it is generally accepted that tips would be 8% of your sales; this is what these companies are stealing from their staff. I never pay service charge - but I do tip well for good service!

Aloysius60

This is daylight robbery. This is licence to make free money. Please DO NOT PAY SERVICE CHARGE. Service staff are being exploited openly, with no recourse from the law as it stands. I understand UNITE and the MIRROR are awarding stickers for FAIR TIPS restaurants. There should also be a way of shaming those that are stealing money from people that work very hard for minimum hourly rates.