27th October 2021
Employees to be given legal rights on payment of tips
New requirements on employers to clearly display their policy on tips and service charges
The Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar TD, has today (Wednesday, 27 October) received Government approval to draft a law that will give new rights to employees, prohibiting the use of tips and gratuities to ‘make up’ contractual rates of pay.
There will be new requirements on employers to clearly display their policy on how both card and cash tips, gratuities and service charges are distributed. All electronic tips must be distributed fairly and in a transparent way.
The Tánaiste said:
“This new law will, for the first time, give workers legal protections over tips. It will mean that any tips received cannot be counted towards an employee’s basic pay, they must be counted as additional and separate.
“I know many people are sometimes unsure how or if tips and service charges are distributed when paying for a meal, for example, especially when paying by card or phone. Once this law is enacted, all employers will be required to show clearly how tips and service charges are dealt with in a business. This will provide clarity for both customers and staff.
“Most establishments already treat their employees fairly with regard to tips, so for many it will mean no change other than having to display their policy clearly.”
The aim of the Payment of Wages (Amendment) (Tips and Gratuities) Bill is to:
- Provide clarity on the meaning of tips, gratuities and service charges
- Place tips and gratuities, but not service charges, outside the scope of a person’s contractual wages
- Oblige employers to display prominently their policy on the distribution of both cash and card tips
- Oblige employers to distribute fairly, equitably and in a transparent manner, tips that are received in electronic form, that is, through debit or credit cards or smart phones
An important element of the new law will be to give employees a legal entitlement to receive tips and gratuities paid in electronic form (that is, by debit or credit card) with a provision that these tips and gratuities should be paid out to workers in a fair, transparent and equitable manner. A fair and equitable distribution will be context specific and is likely to take into account matters such as staff hours, busy and quiet periods, a worker’s role in service delivery, customs and practice etc.
Payment of tips and gratuities by electronic means, in contrast to cash tips that are paid directly to the worker, means that the employer is in control of how these tips and gratuities are distributed. The electronic record generated by this payment method will support and facilitate inspections by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) in the event of a complaint being made. How cash tips are distributed will be required to be included in an employer’s publicly displayed policy on the management of tips and gratuities.
This new law builds on the suite of legal rights that the Government is introducing to protect workers, which includes the Sick Leave Bill, the Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive and the right to request remote work.
This proposal had been commenced in 2019 but had fallen following the general election of February 2020.
ENDS
Notes for Editor
The General Scheme of the Payment of Wages (Amendment) (Tips and Gratuities) Bill contains seven Heads as follows:
Head 1 provides for the short title, construction, collective citation and any necessary commencements.
Head 2 provides for an amendment to the definition of “wages” in the Payment of Wages Act 1991.
Head 3 provides for definitions of tips, gratuities and service charges.
Head 4 provides that employers cannot include tips and gratuities in the calculation or payment of contracted wages by introducing a prohibition on the deduction from contractual wages of tips and gratuities.
Head 5 provides for an obligation on employers to distribute certain tips and gratuities in a fair, transparent and equitable manner.
Head 6 provides for an obligation on employers to prominently display a notice on how tips, gratuities and service charges are distributed.
Head 7 provides for an amendment to the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994 to place a requirement on employers to provide information to their employees, within five days of hiring, on how tips, gratuities and service charges are distributed.
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