Restaurant discretionary service charge could be scrapped
New Government proposals aimed at clarifying who actually receives tips
Discretionary service charges could be banned under new Government proposals.
Business Secretary Sajid Javid has launched a consultation on tipping amid confusion as to who actually receives customer gratuities.
Some of the country’s most popular restaurant chains were criticised last summer for their poor tipping practices. Pizza Express, Strada, Zizzi, Ask and Prezzo were among those accused of keeping part of the service charge rather than giving it all to staff.
The proposals
Basically, the Government wants to make it clearer where tips go as well as putting an end to unfair tipping practices.
As it stands, a number of restaurants automatically add a 10%-15% service charge to their bills. Ministers fear that this often leads to ‘double tipping’ because diners don’t realise that they have already paid a service charge before leaving cash for their waiter.
It’s also hoped that the proposals will limit how much employers can take from the service charges. The discretionary service charge may even be scrapped altogether.
“We will look closely at all the options, including legislation if necessary,” said Javid. At the moment there isn’t any law that states how much of the service charge goes to the employer and how much to the staff.
The consultation paper follows evidence on tipping practices in the hospitality, leisure and service industry gathered last year, reflecting opinions from customers, workers and employers.
Worker groups want 100% of tips to go to workers, while the majority of customers (61%) want to see tips either going to the employee or put in a pot which can’t be controlled by the employer (23%), known as a ‘tronc’. It’ll come as no surprise that employers were more in favour of keeping the current treatment of discretionary payments for service.
A recent survey by OpenTable found that 87% of UK customers always leave a tip, with the average person leaving 9% of the bill.
Make sure tips go to staff, not bosses
Unfortunately there’s only one way to ensure that your tips go to staff, but it’s pretty simple: pay in cash rather than card.
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Comments
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The previous comments are very sensible. Tipping is an out of date custom that is intended to make the giver feel good and superior to the one receiving the tip. As has been pointed out, we do not tip staff in shops who often are far more attentive than those in restaurants. Why is it necessary to give extra money to someone whose job it is to carry a Pizza to your table. I have to pay income tax on every penny I earn, why should staff in restaurants get tax free extras?
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Why do restaurant staff believe they have a perceived 'right' to a tip, let alone an obligatory onw when, after all said and done, we aren't expected to tip the shelf-filling staff in our local supermarkets, nor the cashiers at the tills. We don't tip bus drivers for getting us to our destinations safely and (sometimes) on time. We don't give tips to ambulance personnel or the dustmen/women. A tip should be at the absolute discretion of the customer, especially in restaurants where somebody has to come and take the order, somebody else has to prepare and cook it and again it has to be brought to the table. The price of providing this service should either be built in to the price, staff paid better wages, or by law requiring owners to deposit tips into a separate, ring-fenced account and overseen by an independent member of staff. This would end any confusion in a single stroke.
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I also feel that outlawing the 'discretionary' service charge is long overdue. The price on the menu should be the price you pay for the food: if you're going to pay £20 for a steak which would cost you £5 if you bought it yourself, and probably cost the restaurant £2 wholesale, it's ludicrous to suggest that the cost of paying someone to bring it to the table isn't included in the menu price. And it's misleading to publish menu prices which are effectively 12% lower than the price you will actually be expected to pay.
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05 May 2016