A long-delayed plan to ensure hospitality workers and others receive their tips in full has cleared the Commons with cross-party support. Under the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Bill it would introduce a legal obligation on employers to ensure all tips, gratuities and service charges are paid to workers in full.
It would also enable the Government to create a code of practice intended to ensure fairness and transparency in how the money is allocated amongst staff, and introduce an enforcement mechanism for employees to make complaints and seek redress. A government consultation launched in 2015, found restaurant customers were overwhelmingly in favour of the tips they paid going to the people who served them.
Following several delays, the proposal has now made progress via a private member’s bill – which received its third reading in the Commons on Friday and will now proceed to the Lords for further scrutiny. Tory MP Virginia Crosbie, the current sponsor of the Bill, told the Commons: “The tipping Bill has a simple message: to promote fairness and to promote transparency, to ensure that workers receive the tips they earn.
