Duties of a waitress

kilena

Can anyone tell me what are the duties of a waitress with a minimum wage? I've been trying to find this but can't! I work in a cafe with few other people and we seem to have a lot of duties! we do ordering(drinks stock, food and milk, cleaning products, stock for cake boxes etc.), counting the till and handling other payments(from places that we deliver to), we have to handle complaints, train new people in, clean the place from windows to toilet, wrap various condiments and chocolates in gift wraps(what we then sell in the cafe) etc. and do all the waitress duties at the same time. We are all getting the minimum wage and I think all this is a bit too much for the pay what we get. And we are not allowed to take brakes if it's too busy+the owner/manager is not there most of the time which is annoying since the owner hasn't pointed (or pay anyone!!) to be assistant manager or even supervisor, we get lots of s**t(sorry didn't know what other word to use!) for this when people come to talk with someone who's in charge and they won't take it when we tell them that there's nobody or the owner will be back in couple of days! The owner seems to think that these responsibilities are not too much and goes absolutely bonkers if everything's not done(sometimes we're more busy than other days but there's no extra person to help out!). YELP PLEASE! thanks

Mech1

Offer your services to the boss as "head waitress" with a wage request that you think the position deserves.
Otherwise move on.

Nody

Basically they can make you the CEO at minimum wage and that's legal; so there is no route to try to go there really. The "no break" is illegal but from what I understand relatively common in the business today sadly so your best bet is to do what Mech1 said or get another job.

Uncle Ben

Kilena, as someone else said on here you are entitled to breaks and just because the place is busy is no excuse for not getting them. If the employer assumes it is okay to breach this piece of employment legislation, I have a hunch that he is probably in breach of others. For example, has everyone received contracts of employment, payslips, proper minimum wage rates- there are different rates remember for different age groups, bank holiday entitlements, does everyone pay the proper deductions especially PRSI contributions.

If you or your colleagues can answer no to any of the above I would recommend that all of ye, if it is possible join a TU. I believe Mandate look after catering staff or else try Siptu. It is far too easy to walk away from a job, far better for all of ye to get together and join a Union. Talk it over with the workmates you can trust and go for it. No need to let your employer know, the TU official will do that when you join. Good luck.

BrianG23

Yeah unfortunately waiter and Cafe/Restaurant jobs are actually quite difficult, especially Cafe. Bottom of the barrel, hard work, little training, low wage. Annoys the **** out of me really. Your manager sounds like a **** and should hire more people and give specific jobs..you know...actually manage the cafe. Working in a cafe, you just do everything there is to do in the place. I'd suggest looking for another job and look to get some training while doing your waiter job. That's all a job like that should ever be because it is really annoying and the standard you are being held to is just too common in this country/ Your manage should try to keep the employees happy and ease the workload with more people, especially at minimum wage. If you end up leaving make sure you tell him he's a ****

With that said, I need a Job...Mail me if you're hiring :pac:

silja

It's normally the manager/ supervisor who ordered stock, as they have the company credit card/ can sign purchase orders etc. Everything else is standard for a waitress job.

kilena

Thanks for ur reply Uncle Ben,

Now I think that maybe we should join some kind of a TU because we never received contracts of employment and I have no idea if we are getting any bank holiday entitlements because it's very hard to get a hold of the manager to ask him! and I don't know about the proper PRSI contributions, we do get payslips so I presume that the PRSI contributions can be checked from it (I'm not very good at these things:/ ) but I'll try to find out from the internet (or tax office??)

kilena

Hi Silja,

The way we order stock is that we place the order and then the manager gets a invoice for it.

tatli_lokma

kilena wrote: »

Hi Silja,

The way we order stock is that we place the order and then the manager gets a invoice for it.

Very foolish guy to allow this - he could end up with thousands of euro of unwanted stock! A supervisor should be at least checking the orders before they are placed just to avoid human error mistakes. It is very easy to end up with 100 of something when you only wanted 10!