A LIMERICK Senator has welcomed the passage of a Bill that will ensure that tips, gratuities and service charges will go directly to the workers who earned them rather than their employers.
In 2017, Castleconnell-based Sinn Féin Senator Paul Gavan introduced the Protection of Employee Tips Bill which passed all stages in the Seanad before being blocked by the last coalition government.
However, a campaign organised by the OneGalway Movement, trade unions SIPTU and Unite, as well as students unions succeeded in having the issue revisited by government resulting in the Payment of Wages Tips and Gratuities Bill that will be passed in the next two weeks.
“I am particularly pleased for the restaurant, bar and hotel workers in Limerick, many of whom have contacted me over the years with concerns about how their tips are managed,” Senator Gavan told the Limerick Post.
“While this Bill isn’t perfect it goes a long way to dealing with the issue of Tip Theft, which has been costing employees hundreds of euros each year. Research carried out by Sinn Féin showed one in three workers were not receiving the tips that they earned.”
The new Bill will require restaurants and hotels to display a notice outlining how tips are distributed and will ensure that all electronic tips belong legally to employees.
“The scandal of some hotels and restaurants adding a service charge to bills that was in many cases never passed on to employees will finally be ended. This is a very significant change and aligns the Bill much more with the Bill that I introduced five years ago,” Senator Gavan added.
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