Last month Theresa May announced she would ban restaurants owners from taking the tips from waiters and waitresses. Restaurants such as Prezzo and Zizi have garnered widespread criticism for their role in taking a cut in the tips that their staff have earned. But with over 165,000 businesses in hospitality that employ well over one million people there have remained a plethora of companies who have avoided the sunlight that was shone onto these bigger chains, avoiding media scrutiny and publish backlash.
News of restaurants taking a cut of 10% in the tips staff receive - which Zizi, for example, was found to have been doing - to some was a shocking surprise – but to others, it earned the response: “is that all?”.
Some waiting staff find this to be a meagre reduction as they claim they have had up to 100% of their tips taken from them. Most aren’t aware of their rights, the laws surrounding tipping and are too scared to speak out in fear of losing their job.
While investigating this subject I have been told by one girl she can’t be “associated” with me because she fears she will lose her job at a popular Mexican restaurant in Glasgow. More on that later.
A waitress who asked to be anonymous, who worked in Ed’s Easy Diner in Livingston said: “What happened in Ed’s diner is if you got cash tips you got to keep them. But when they tipped on card everybody but the waiters got it. The kitchen porters, the managers and the bar staff all got the tip and the waiter never.
“Someone could tip £5 on a card and I wouldn’t get any of it. We weren’t allowed to say we didn’t get the tip. We were working really, really hard. You did all this hard work and at the end you never even got to see the tip. I think tips are quite important. A lot of times you’re working on minimum wage. You really work for it.”
The Independent’s campaign “Fair Tips, Fair Pay” revealed that tips were being used to top up the wages of workers being paid less than minimum wage. This is no surprise. Examples from America see waiting staff having a lower minimum wage by law if tips can make up the difference. In the UK tips provide money to workers that companies don't need to cough up.
I was in Topolabamba once and a waitress told me I should not tip because the tips don’t go to her, they go to the manager. The unnamed waitress claimed managers on low wages are being subsidised by waiters and waitresses tips. A company spreadsheet also revealed management and supervisors were earning double that of floor staff
Upon phoning to inquire about the subject the woman on the other end told me she did not know anything about their tipping policy and that she wasn’t even in the shop, despite me phoning the Glasgow branch and despite her answering all my other tipping questions such as "what is your tipping policy?" Then she would not pass me on to the manager, but directed me to contact GRB.
The GRB group owns Topolabamba, along with Cafe Andulaz and Di Maggio’s. GRB have since failed to get back to me. Topolabamba have also failed to reply to my email, but staff tell me they have read it.
I contacted a number of popular Glasgow restaurants including Bread Meats Bread, Wagamama, Cellino’s, BRGR and Stack and Still. All explained they do not take a cut in the tips that staff receive.
Many restaurants, including Cellino’s and Bread Meats Bread, explain a percentage of the waiters’ tips is taken from them to share with kitchen staff. That means that in Bread Meats Bread, for example, 30% of your tip will go partly to the chef who made your food.
A waiter, who is 21 and asked to remain anonymous and worked in a restaurant in the South Side of Glasgow for four years, said: “I didn’t get tips. The customers were giving us tips, but it wasn’t getting added on to our wage. I think the owners took the tips.”
The waiter also said customers were not made aware of this practice and assumed it was going to him.
“For me, it wasn’t as important because I was still living at home. But my cousin, she works as a waitress and if she wasn’t getting tips she wouldn’t be living very well. I know that tips are important to her.”
The waiter explains why he never spoke up against the clandestine practice: “I was too shy. I didn’t want to kick up a fuss.” He says that he made only £6 per hour.
The new law coming in to effect soon will be a breath of fresh air for the hundreds of thousands of waiting staff out there who rely on tips to increase their low wage to a somewhat liveable one. But there is something to be said about companies who have kept secret their unseemly practice which exploits waiters and waitresses, deceives customers and often lines the pockets of the already wealthy at the expense of those who are not.
Like a reverse Robin Hood these companies effectively stole from waiters and waitresses what was rightfully theirs and did so in the dark to avoid the expected wrath of angry customers and a fear that if staff knew they were not alone in this injustice that they might just fight back.
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