With several restaurants and hotels preparing to reopen having being closed for the month of January – due to a fall-off in business or to facilitate renovations – the Kerry Citizens Advice Bureau has this week issued a reminder to employers and staff of the provisions contained in the Payment of Wages (Amendment) (Tips and Gratuities) Act 2022 which came into force in December.
It introduces new rules on how employers share tips, gratuities and service charges amongst employees and, importantly, it makes it illegal for employers to use tips or gratuities to make up basic wages. The legislation will be reviewed after one year to assess its effectiveness and to decide if further measures are needed.
Employers are banned from describing a mandatory service charge applied to a customer’s bill as a service charge unless the payment is treated by the employer in the same way as electronic tips or gratuities. This means that mandatory service charges can only be added to a bill if the money goes to employees.
All employees must be consulted on the policy introduced on how tips or gratuities will be distributed and employers must also consult with staff before making any material change to the policy. Electronic tips and cash tips received by the employer must be distributed fairly and in a transparent way.
Employers must give staff a statement of the tips and gratuities distributed, including the total amount of electronic tips received during a particular period and the statement must be provided within 10 days of the tips and gratuities being distributed.
Employers must set out how cash tips are distributed in its publicly displayed tops and gratuities notice.
Staff members who might feel they are not getting the tips due and cannot resolve the problem with the employer should complete an online complaint form on workplacerelations.ie within six months of the dispute or complaint occurring.
Anyone needing information, advice or have an advocacy issue, can call a member of the local Citizens Information team in Kerry on 0818-07-7860.
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