Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am very happy to speak in support of the Bill. I organised a press conference this morning to support Senator Gavan's National Minimum Wage (Protection of Employee Tips) Bill 2017 at which a former worker in The Ivy restaurant spoke. She expressed articulately the conditions in such an environment. In July 2018 workers were headhunted by management of The Ivy because they were possibly the best in the city and because of their experience as they had spent a long time working in the industry. They left jobs to work in the restaurant with the expectation that it would be a good place in which to work, with a good atmosphere and decent wages and that they would be given their tips. She explained that her basic pay was the national minimum wage, although her contract stipulated that it would be slightly more per hour. On their first day, staff were shocked not to receive tips given by credit card. They were told that the money raised by way of the service charge would be pooled in a so-called "tronc" to make up the difference between the national minimum wage and contracted pay rates and that tips given by card would be paid the following month after working for six weeks. She said tips given by card were referred to as a bonus and would have been the difference between poverty and survival pay rates. She said that when staff raised concerns about the process, they were promised that they would retain an increased share of tips given by card and that they would be paid fortnightly instead of monthly and that the distribution of tips would be monthly. In November 2018 they received no tips bonus; instead they received a letter accusing them of greed. In December they met The Ivy's London-based HR manager who told them that 100% of the tips given by card went into the tronc to pay wages, with the company retaining the excess after wages had been paid. Given that The Ivy was accepting on average around €3,000 per day in tips given by card, the excess was substantial.

When we raised the issue - I raised it during Leaders' Questions - the Taoiseach told me clearly that it was illegal to use tips given in cash or by card in part payment of wages to make up the difference between the national minimum wage and contracted pay rates. Obviously, The Ivy very quickly obtained legal advice and took the option of giving a tip by card off its card machines. The only alternative is to pay a 12.5% service charge at every table; previously it had only been paid paid at tables of five and over. That is quite deliberate and an example of greed, not on the part of the workers but on the part of big companies that are undermining others that are trying to pay their workers a decent wage and run a system that could be beneficial to workers in receiving their tips. This morning The Ivy worker said of the seven or eight restaurants in which she had worked - she has 11 years' experience - only one had had a democratic way of dealing with tips given by customers. The key point is that when a customer gives a tip, it is given on the basis that he or she makes a decision that he or she has received good service from the waiter or waitress.

The Bill deals with these issues. I cannot say strongly enough that the workers are vulnerable. If a customer asks them whether they will receive the service charge, they cannot answer. There have been instances where stooges have been sent into some restaurants to ask staff this question to see what their response will be. If the response is not the one the management wants to hear, they could be sacked.

That is the environment in which the employees are working. I made the point during Leaders' Questions this morning that this practice of greedy employers does not describe a republic of opportunity but rather a republic of the unacceptable face of capitalism.

What has been happening in the hospitality sector during the past ten to 15 years is the same type of practice that has happened with the bogus self-employed, zero-hour contracts and underemployment. There has been an attack on workers' pay and conditions on the basis of bosses who are greedy and want to keep getting more profit while they may be under pressure due to costs related to their industry. They are going after workers' pay. They are going after the workers' tips and, essentially, it is tip theft and wage theft.

I thank the Sinn Féin Deputies for bringing forward this legislation. I am sure it will progress and be dealt with in committee. It is bad for democracy that the Government has again raised the issue of a money message with this Bill. These workers need some sort of response and the sooner the better. When will the Minister bring forward the heads of the Bill she is proposing? Will it be next month, before the Dáil rises for the summer recess or before the next general election? We do not know. This Bill has progressed since 2017 to the Stage it is at. I thank Sinn Fein for bringing it directly into the Dáil on Second Stage. I believe it will progress and be dealt with in committee in good faith, not in bad faith, which is what is happening on the Government side.

I read an article while I was getting some information on the Bill. There is much reference to the Low Pay Commission. It has raised issues about this and they should be examined. It made the point in its report that the Union of Students in Ireland and Sinn Féin submitted the results of surveys in the ONE Galway campaign that they had undertaken which examined the practices within the hospitality sector and included data regarding the withholding of employees’ tips by employers which showed that one in three workers are not receiving those tips. The commission went on to state it:

[D]id not consider undertaking its own survey into the matter. However, given the time constraints involved and the problem of trying to accurately survey what is, in essence, an informal and undocumented practice, the Commission did not feel such a survey was a practical option.

That is key to the report. It should have gone and got that information. Reporters in the media are coming back with more information on this about different restaurants around town, one of which is the Hard Rock Café. A few of them around town are engaged in the same practice of withholding service charges. This is money that the customer believes should go to the employee who served them. The Minister should review her position on the money message and on opposing the Bill so that we can get this Bill through as speedily and efficiently as possible with the goodwill of everybody in the Chamber.

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