We’ve previously posted about this ongoing dispute between workers and management at TGI Fridays (see below). This stems from a string of changes that were put into place and adversely affect their people.
Workers have had time and a half payments for bank holiday working stopped, free staff meals were stopped 3 years ago when the national minimum wage was introduced, and then TGI’s announced that 40% of tips paid on a card would be redistributed to the kitchen teams. This final change was the last straw. The change to tips means that some waiting staff have lost £250 per month in lost wages. Four days of strike action has taken place at some restaurants and the next step was for them to deliver a letter to the business secretary, Greg Clarke at the department of Business, Energy, Innovation and Skills.
The government are also under pressure from Jeremy Corbyn who has said that hospitality workers will keep 100% of tips left by customers under a Labour government.
Dave Turnbull, Unite regional officer said: “…Rogue bosses like TGI Fridays are being let off the hook to abuse tips and exploit government/HMRC guidelines (E24) on tips and troncs, to boost their own profits and offset the cost of the government’s pay rise to low earners.” Unite will be informing TGI’s management of its intention to hold a consultative ballot of all union members across the chain’s 82 restaurants on strike action.
We are disappointed that the government has failed to act to make sure that every worker in the hospitality sector is treated with fairness and transparency. We continue to watch developments. If you are unsure about tips and would like to know what a tronc is, please give us a call here at our Birmingham All Payrolls head office.