Hotel waiter claiming service charge goes to the big bosses

[FleurdeLion]

I am a former trade unionist who has campaigned for fair tips for staff. I've also worked as a kitchen porter who benefitted from the tronc system where the service charge automatically applied to restaurant bills paid by card, was shared among waiting and kitchen staff.

As of October 2024, 100% of any service charge or tip paid by card must be shared via the tronc system.

This evening I ate at a Hilton airport hotel restaurant where a 12.5% service charge was added to the bill. I know that I can ask for this amount to be deducted from the bill, and that I can give a cash tip that will go directly to the waiter.

I don't generally carry cash and I have been happy to pay a service charge, knowing that it goes to the tronc. Personally I think 12.5% is probably a bit much. I would prefer a 10% charge, or for the hospitality industry to pay people properly. But I am willing to pay the service charge, knowing it will be distributed to the kitchen and waiting staff.

This is not about tipping.

This evening, the waiter said that the service charge doesn't go to him but to "the big bosses" and can be removed. We witnessed him saying the same to an American couple at the next table who paid the full bill with the service charge and gave him a cash tip, saying that this was for him. I don't care what Americans do. If they want to give him cash, I'm fine with that.

I asked him if the money went to the tronc and he wouldn't say yes. I pointed out that the law says all the service charge must be shared by the staff and asked him if the company was breaking the law. Again he wouldn't say yes.

Am I being unreasonable in thinking that he wanted to get the full tip for himself and not share it with the rest of the team?

Should I mention his approach to the restaurant manager? I imagine that he might lose his job or at the very least be disciplined for talking to diners in this way?

But it seeds distrust with diners that the law is not being followed and implies that this mega hotel chain is screwing over its staff.

YABU - who cares, give him a cash tip instead of the service charge.
YANBU - mention it to the hotel management, because he's a CF.

That’s exactly why I fought for better laws. Now those laws exist, choosing to ignore them or pretending companirs will ignore them means we may as all go home and let anarchy prevail.

Whenever I've done my rotation of male companions, I have always asked them if they had cash on them to tip the service. It's the one time I've experienced male subservience. I pay my way at the dinner table but am happy to say I like the man to take control of the little things 😆 🤣

There’s no pretence. There are plenty of us who are sufficiently cynical to understand that regardless of the law multinationals like Hilton exist to make profits and exploiting their workers to maximise them. We weren’t all born yesterday.

It's legal not to pay the service charge and leave a tip in cash.

Preferably without the waiter badgering you to solve his employment issues.

You might be an ex trade unionist but have you ever worked in hospitality?
Because this shit goes on all the time and you're an absolute mug to think that because there's a law and policies around it they're actually followed.

And it's people like you that allow companies to continue getting away with it, because they know busy bodies will think they're going to be following the law and will report anyone who exposes they might not be, therefore identifying anyone who might rock the boat and get them caught for them.

Honestly some people are so gullible.

It's wait staff who badger customers to tip in cash instead of taking their employers to court who allow them to get away with it. Getting the law passed was only the first step. People need to enforce it by getting their unions to help them take their employers to tribunals. Otherwise it's just the same old same old, whether you tip in cash or pay a service charge that isn't disbursed, the back of house staff get ripped off more than anyone.

This has definitely been the case when I worked in a hotel so everyone gets the service charge whether your the head honcho or spend your days cleaning. In a big place the waiter might get a fraction of a penny per pound of service charge.

Gleneagles is local to me and they rather cheekily advertise salaries that include service charge but what you get is min wage or thereabouts and a £3-4k bonus once a year. I’m sure it’s lovely when it rolls around but not helpful when you need to pay your bills rather than in six months.

Exactly this. I think the OP is having a hard time here and Ive seen this exact situation in smaller organisations where there is no service charge - small country pubs etc - the bill is £85 - the card holder says take £100 to include the tip and its a ball ache for the owner of the premises to take that £15 off as its already gone though the machine as a payment for the food and drinks etc rather than £85 + £15 - its a real ache for the accounting/profit side - I take card payments in my business and I've got to be very careful to categorise what the payments are for - and that is complete payments - not splitting a payment - not hospitality thankfully as I did that for years and an glad to be out of it!

Having been in hospitality - we ran 4 pubs/restaurants, a coffee shop and a nightclub I disagree completely with the extra service charge. We paid all of our staff a fair wage and their (cash) tips were meant to go into a pot to be shared between the waiter/ress and the kitchen staff - however I have seen myself the customer give a cash tip to the waitress and stress 'this is for you' and TBH the kitchen/chef were often paid more than the waiting crew so actually as front of house and being cheerful and making people welcome etc I think they deserve more of the tips - don't get me started on the US and their $2 hour wages for waiting staff - its just wrong

When we owned/ran venues I and my partner never took any of the tips - even though we may have been working in the kitchen or behind the bars etc - it didn't feel right to so when we worked out the cash from the tip jar we removed our hours from the workings out - even though I think we were more welcoming that some of our staff!!

EDIT - Re Gleneagles etc - if they advertise the SC in the wages they must have an idea of their future turnover which I don't how they'd know - we certainly didn't

Such things have a natural solution that doesn't require you to be involved in anyway. Soon enough the other staff will twig they get less when he's on, or they'll overhear him, and they'll sort it out amongst themselves. Honestly there is no proportionate way for you to involve yourself in any root than other being an unbearable heavy footed busybody with incomplete information, let it ride. If you want some corruption and social injustice to fight that's great, but I am sure we can think of better causes for your energy and skills.

He may not be aware that he is recieving the tip through tronc if he doesn't read his payslips. A lot of hospitality companies will already have had been distributing the service charge through tronc, so nothing will have changed for them in October. He will just see service charge going into the till/online banking, and think that, as he's not receiving a wedge of cash at the end of the night, the tips are not being shared.

Also, tronc will be subject to tax and deductions, so would be a lot less than what he would recieve via a cash tip.

It's highly likely that he would be dismissed if you raised this with the Hilton, especially if he has less than two years' service, so yes, YABU to make a complaint.

30 years ago I worked in a restaurant

Everyone shared the tips each shift

This included the person washing up, the chefs, the waiting staff, bar staff & managers

During Christmas, we would take home £20 tip each, per shift

We also received free hot meal per shift & tea or coffee

Happy days

Hi OP. I work in hospitality and am currently in a disagreement with the director of the business I work for. I’m fighting to get tips that are owed to us from months back. I have quoted the new law. So far it’s got me no where. I’ve told my husband I’m half tempted to tell customers not to tip as I’d rather take no tips than have tips go to greedy business directors stealing money that is rightfully mine and my hard working colleagues. Like the chap who served you, I would probably also clam up if someone then quizzed me on this.

Except you’ve assumed he’s the one lying. Having worked for some large hospitality businesses it’s perfectly possible they’re breaking the law and most of their staff are unware of the new legislation.

Exactly this. I am the only one out of the FOH and BOH staff in my workplace that understands enough about English law to know our rights. Everyone else I work with is also much politer than I am and if a customer were to quiz them because of something I said, they’d probably be too timid to say the truth. I work in hospitality full time and have children and this post has made me realise that actually I should not tell customers that as much as I appreciate the thoughts, please don’t tip, because that customer may attempt to get me fired. Zero hour contracts mean it’s very easy to let us go without having to fire us.

OP, please don’t report this person.

Agree. Several pps have explained that in their own experience either:

• tips were shared according to pay so highly paid management staff would get a much higher proportion
• artificial barriers such as impossible-to-enrol-on training meant staff couldn't get in on a share
• there was no transparency and the amounts didn't make sense

I would suggest that, as with many things, campaigning for a law wasn't enough. You could put some energy into finding out whether it's being enacted fairly. Undercover journalism? But leave the poor waiter alone.

You aren't very bright if you think laws are not broken.

Yes that was what I thought. He's basically cheating his colleagues

I think you are right here, OP. It's not right for him to disparage the company or to try to get tips just for himself that do not have to ne shared, it's fundamental dishonesty.

So, as I understand it, if I want to tip the waiter, I can't (legally) without that tip being shared by ALL the staff.

Yes, and bear in mind that the server is usually (but obviously not always) on minimum wage and the kitchen staff can often be paid double what the server is. The kitchen staff more often than not treat the servers like shit too.

To also add to this. The tips are generally split in the tronc system, not by which shifts you worked, but by how many hours you worked in a set period of time (usually monthly). So you could be someone that only works 1 evening a week as a college student and you might have earned £100 tip on one of those nights because you bent over backwards to help a customer. You’ll see hardly any of that though, because the tips are shared equally by all the people that worked that month and therefore the chefs who work 80-100 hours a week and are paid double what you are, will to see the majority of the tips as you only worked 8 hours each week.

And you are assuming that the waiter is lying and not the employer. Because employers always abide by the letter of the law. Astonishing that we need unions or employment tribunals or the law, when they are all so honest.