A campaign has been launched for Fair Pay and Fair Tips for hospitality workers ahead of new tipping laws being introduced.
Unite represent thousands of hospitality workers and launched the nationwide campaign to ensure the workers in the lowest paid sector receive fair pay and fair tips.
The unions campaign comes ahead of new tips legislation which comes into effect on October 1 that will obligate employers to hand over 100% of all tips in a fair and transparent manner by the end of the next month.
Unite say the campaign is necessary ‘given the regrettable history of the sector in the way it treats many of its workers’. This campaign is being launched to ensure workers understand their rights and have the support and tools they need to enforce them.
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The campaign will also name and shame employers who try to ignore or distort the new legislation or who attempt to suppress wages to boost their profits.
The Employment (Fair Allocation of Tips) Act comes in later this year and under the act, workers can take their employer to tribunal for failure to ensure fair tips within 12 months of the breach. A judge can then order the re-allocation of tips plus up to £5,000 compensation for each worker impacted.
Sharon Graham, Unite General Secretary said: “Unite is passionate in its support for hospitality workers and it will leave no stone unturned in supporting our members who are facing exploitation by employers.
“If employers think they can continue to get away with failing to give workers their tips or docking their pay they need to think again. Unite will use every avenue to ensure our members secure pay and tip justice.”
The union has laid out their five aims for the campaign and it starts with workers being paid enough so they don’t rely on tips. It also wants workers to receive 100% of the tips they do receive without any employer deductions. Transparency is next for them and workers should be able to see how many tips have been collected and distributed. They believe the tips should be distributed equitably according to job role and wage and they want workers who earn tips to decide what is fair through a democratically elected TRONC committee.
Bryan Simpson, Unite's Lead Organiser for the Hospitality sector said: “While legislation to regulate tips is very much needed, it doesn't mean fair tips are guaranteed.
“Workers must collectively demand them through their union which is why we have launched the fair pay, fair tips campaign - to give hospitality workers the knowledge and tools to organise their workplace to win the pay and tips they deserve”
Unite Hospitality members have history of winning fairer tips. In 2018 they took historic strike action at TGI Fridays for a better policy while in 2022, workers at Cameron House won back £138k in unpaid tips and service charge when it was discovered their employer hadn’t been fair or transparent with their distribution.
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