Restaurant taking waitrs tips !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sammy23

Not sure where to post this, thought best to put it here as it's another example of a company sh**ting on it employee's.
I work in a dublin restaurant and they are pocketing are tips, feels like we're paying them so we can work there!!!!!!!

O'k so the way we use to do things, all the waiters/waitress would give 1.5% of are total sales for the night to be split between the kitchen staff.
Usually sales for waiters/waitress for a weendend night would be €1500. So 1.5% of that would be €22.50.
Now this was something we agreed, as the company wasn't willing to pay them above min wage and they do a hell of a lot of work.

Now they are trying to get us to give 3% of are total sales. 1% going to the kitchen and 2% been kept by the company.
And when we get a table of 6 or more there is a service charge put on it of 10% which they keep 6% of.

And if we don't agree to this they'll bring in a till and put a service charge of 10% on every table and take all the tips and pay us an extra €1.50 an hour
(they say that they've worked it out and thats what are share of the tips would be!!!)
I seen a place in america got sued for doing something like this.

With the way the country is, people aren't leaving that much and even then this isn't america where everyone always leaves money, there is a lot of people why wouldn't even consider tipping. Last week they started this and one of the waiters didn't make enough in tips to cover this and they made him get the money from the bank machine!!!!! The owners are from england and haven't even come over to discuss it, we where just told by the general manager this is what was happening.

Surely this can't be allowed , dose anyone have an idea what we could do??????????????????????

---

Now a bit of a rant.

The worst thing is that most of the people that work here are foreign and need the job for there visa's.
They've scared them into thinking that they have to pay this or they'll lose there job.
They've told us there they'll take the kitchens tips too. (trying to turn them against us).

And when ever you bring it up they say think of those with kids, they need those tips? What? then don't take them
Telling us if you don't pay they'll bring in the 10% thing and no body will get anything.

Mean when people leave money , especially when theres a service charge on the bill, you'd like to think your waiter was getting most if not all that money?

ixoy

I'm not sure on the legality of what they're doing but I do know that years back a restaurant in Malahide tried a similar tactic to take staff's tips. Word got out, spread around and people began to boycott the place until the owner publicly relented and apologised. Maybe if you somehow started letting the name of the place be dropped...?

maggy_thatcher

Could it be because they changed the laws recently on the taxation of tips? Are you declaring your tips in your tax return form?

I'm not sure of the legality of taking your "tip" money - but given that a decent percentage of tips these days are probably handled by credit-card, how are you handling that? The owners have to cover the 1-2% that the CC company charge them, don't they?

On a related note- what I personally do in restaurants - if the restaurant has a service charge on the bill, I put exactly the required amount on the bill (right down the exact €0.01), whereas if it doesn't, and the service warrants it, I'll usually leave a tip of ~15% + round-up. This usually means that adding a service charge results in lower income for the restaurant. As such, I recommend you don't go with the fixed service charge approach!

the groutch

if a restaurant gives good service & no problems with food etc, I tip up to 10%

if the menu outisde saying there is a "service charge" incuded, I will just go elsewhere

Gurgeh

I know this is an old thread, but the practice is still going on. My girlfriend works as a waitress and she's told me about it. She quit her last job because the owners said that they needed the tips because of the recession (note: they didn't cut their own wages) and insisted on taking 50% of the tips to help pay staff but this new job is worse: she (and the other staff) get paid a flat rate of €1.50 an hour (from the tips) on top of min. wage while the owners pocket the rest.
My girlfriend is hard-working but now she feels kind of unmotivated at work. Why does the slow waitress where she works get the same pay as her for doing less? They'd never get away with this kind of thing in the U.S.
I'm not going to name the restaurant because she still works there but it's got a good name and I wouldn't have expected this from them. Anyway I wonder how widespread this practice is, how legal it is and how many people know this is going on, and do they want their tips to go to the owners or to the staff. I think it's a disgrace.

maxer68

Gurgeh wrote: »

I (note: they didn't cut their own wages) .

How do you know?

None of my staff know my salary and it would be extremely unlikely that any waitress will know the salary of any business owner.

If its a restaurant, my guess is the owner is taking a miniscule amount of money as a wage in the present market conditions.

They've probably also cut prices across the board.

It is quite normal for tips to be shared amongst all the staff as all the staff are involved in the service - not just the person putting the plate on the table.

Gurgeh

OK I don't know for sure. Sorry, I should have stuck with facts. But if people are still buying new cars and going on holidays their wage cut, if they take one, probably isn't a problem for them. On lower scale wages those kind of things turn into dreams.

They were sharing tips in the place she used to work, the chefs got a % and some other part-time staff got a % too. She quit because she was outraged the owners said they were going to use 50% of the tips to pay the part-time staff. But her principles got her nowhere, only to another restaurant where they do the tip stealing in style.

maxer68

Gurgeh wrote: »

OK I don't know for sure. Sorry, I should have stuck with facts. But if people are still buying new cars and going on holidays their wage cut, if they take one, probably isn't a problem for them. .

I know a hell of a lot of business owners who are currently taking just what they need to ensure staff continue to get paid. I've had 3 years of pain, but I had 12 great years before that and I expect this year to be quite good and next year to be the bounce year.

The restaurant & hotel trade are the worst hit of all.

When I pay a tip in a restaurant, I expect it is shared equally amongst ALL staff who worked that week - if not, then staff would only want to work on Saturdays, chefs wouldn;'t give a crap, the pot washer wouldn't make sure the paltes were sparkling, the front of house wouldn't welcome the guests.

The person taking the order and placing the food on the table is just one cog in the wheel. It is totally unfair for any one person to expect to keep all the tips.

In the USA its different, the service staff get paid a nominal amount (usually $1 an hour) and they must make damn sure the customer is looked after including making sure the food is on the plate correctly, cooked properly, the plate is clean, the welcome is friendly etc.

the groutch

call me naive if you like, but I would have thought that it would be better to be getting €1.50 an hour extra instead of the tips?
I know it removes a bit of the motivation, but with the way things are at the moment I'd be happier not having to depend on generous tipping to make up my wage.
And once you have that €1.50 on paper, your boss won't be albe to reverse it, even if it costs him more than the old system did.

Tazz T

I think it's an appalling practice. I want to know my 100% tip is going to the floor staff and not management. I'm paying to reward good service. Otherwise I'm not going to pay it.

Tipping is a great incentive for staff. If management don't realise this, they don't deserve to be in business.

Gurgeh

Interrogated herself last night when she got home from her shift. Facts are great things...

Now time for a little rough maths:
Say 20 staff in the restaurant between chefs, full-time and part-time staff and the 2 owners.
Actually they get €1.35 on top of min. wage, not €1.50 like I'd been saying (so that's €10 an hour).
There's about 60 seats in the restaurant, like I said, this place has a good name, and it's normally pretty full, even on a week day.
So: 20 staff * €1.35 * 8 hour shift = €216 needed in tips daily to cover €1.35 per person.
Average spend seems to be about €35 per head so say 10% tip = €3.50 * 60 seats = €210 taken in tips daily.
Therefore €210 kind of = €216.

So it could be I'm getting all on my high horse over something that might just actually be fair, based on maxer68's even distribution theory.
So this is kind of surprising to me. Am I missing something in my calculations? Can I believe this is true? :-)

the groutch

Gurgeh wrote: »

Interrogated herself last night when she got home from her shift. Facts are great things...

Now time for a little rough maths:
Say 20 staff in the restaurant between chefs, full-time and part-time staff and the 2 owners.
Actually they get €1.35 on top of min. wage, not €1.50 like I'd been saying (so that's €10 an hour).
There's about 60 seats in the restaurant, like I said, this place has a good name, and it's normally pretty full, even on a week day.
So: 20 staff * €1.35 * 8 hour shift = €216 needed in tips daily to cover €1.35 per person.
Average spend seems to be about €35 per head so say 10% tip = €3.50 * 60 seats = €210 taken in tips daily.
Therefore €210 kind of = €216.

So it could be I'm getting all on my high horse over something that might just actually be fair, based on maxer68's even distribution theory.
So this is kind of surprising to me. Am I missing something in my calculations? Can I believe this is true? :-)

sounds about right
but the important thing is the €1.35 per hour is guaranteed, the €3.50 per seat isnt.
given the choice I know which I'd take