Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this important Bill. Sinn Féin supports this Bill. That will not surprise anyone. Nevertheless, there are a small number of areas where we would like to see this Bill strengthened and I will reference them in my contribution, given that only 45 minutes have been scheduled for Committee and Remaining Stages next week. It is frustrating for me, as a legislator, as I have a number of amendments tabled that I think will help to strengthen the Bill. Many of them will not be reached because of the short time that has been allocated for the Remaining Stages.

This Bill arose out of the bravery and hard work of workers and trade unions, and in particular, the One Galway movement, my own former trade union, SIPTU, Mandate and Unite. All of these campaigned tirelessly on this issue over many years. In particular, I want to give special thanks to the hard work and bravery of Julia Marciniak, who now with Unite. She put her head right above the parapet and took on an unscrupulous employer for robbing tips from workers. She drove this issue home and put herself out there. In the industry she was working in, that is not an easy thing to do. I want to acknowledge that the Tánaiste met Ms Marciniak on a number of occasions and it is clear from this that he listened to her. It is fair that we commend her on her work on this and on her input into this very important legislation. She dragged a light and shone it purposefully on this whole industry. I also wish to mention that this Bill being on our agenda is due in no small part to the work of Sinn Féin's Senator Gavan.

In 2017, Sinn Féin presented a Bill on this issue alongside the trade union movement. That Bill subsequently passed all stages in the Seanad, despite opposition from the Tánaiste's own party, but more importantly, it kicked off a national conversation about tips and the importance of legislating for the protection of employee tips. Thankfully, Fine Gael's position changed. I commend the Tánaiste on bringing forward this Bill, engaging with the trade union movement on it and strengthening it in the Seanad to the benefit of workers.

The Bill does several important things. It places tips, gratuities and service charges outside of the scope of a person’s contractual wages, ensuring that tips cannot be used to top up a worker’s wage but rather, that they are in addition to a worker’s wages. Following pressure from Unite, SIPTU, Sinn Féin and others, the Government amended the Bill in the Seanad to have service charges treated the same as tips and gratuities. Prior to this change, service charges imposed by an employer could have been used to pay a worker’s wages or, indeed, just be kept by that employer. This was a significant win that will definitely benefit workers. I was delighted to see that this aspect was strengthened. I know this was done because there is an understanding of the importance of service charges to workers in the hospitality sector. As I said before, the Tánaiste engaged with the trade unions on this aspect of the Bill and in fairness, the changes that were brought forward will make a real and meaningful difference.

However, I have no doubt that, like me, the Tánaiste is concerned with public social media posts from the Restaurants Association of Ireland that state it intends to figure out a way around this part of the Bill that has been strengthened. Not long after the amendments were passed in the Seanad giving workers a right to a share of the service charges, the aforementioned association and some of its members posted comments saying that it is their "understanding that businesses are still permitted to apply a group booking charge as part of the new legislation". Essentially, what this looks like is that some businesses might intend to change the name of the charge from a "service charge" to a "group booking charge" to use this as a mechanism to circumvent this legislation. To be honest, I was not necessarily surprised when I saw this, but the immediate efforts of the sector to look straight away for ways to circumvent this new law tells us all we need to know.

What is more, it does a disservice to us as legislators, and to the Tánaiste as a Minister who is trying to create a fair law in respect of workers' rights in the context of tips, gratuities and service charges. Sinn Féin hopes the Tánaiste will bring forward amendments to ensure the legislation cannot be circumvented. We will work with him to do that.

We welcome the obligation on employers to display prominently to customers their policy on the distribution of cash and electronic tips. Additional provisions could be included, however, to make sure that every customer knows well what is the policy. It could be added to menus, posted in bathrooms or communicated in another way to customers. It is important that customers know where their tip, gratuity or service charge will go. There should be engagement with Fáilte Ireland with regard to ensuring that people travelling here know about this law. If I tip in a restaurant when I am abroad, I want to know that it goes directly to the intended person. I would find it reassuring, as would most people, to have that information front and centre. There may be a role for Fáilte Ireland in promoting and publicising that. It is also saying that this is a decent place and that if a customer leaves a tip, the worker gets that tip. That makes one's food taste better. I am not sure whether that is true, but it might work as part of a marketing campaign. Maybe the Tánaiste will take it on board.

Furthermore, there is a clear obligation on employers to distribute all electronic tips. Crucially, workers have a right to redress at the WRC, where issues arising in respect of tips, gratuities and service charges can be considered. However, there is no right to redress in respect of cash tips. That can be amended on Committee and Report Stages. I understand the Department believes it would be difficult for the WRC to adjudicate on that issue but, as a person who has experience in this area, I know that every case at the WRC is difficult and can be challenging to adjudicate on. That is not a reason not to do or consider this, however, and see if a mechanism can be found to address it. If the WRC is supported and resourced properly, it can have success with regard to cash tips. Let us not forget what we are discussing here. We are talking about the stealing of money. We have not done away with theft as a charge if a person robs money from someone else in the street, so we should not allow a worker's money to be robbed by an employer.

I commend the work of Dr. Deirdre Curran and Unite the Union on the treatment of workers in the hospitality sector. They have done a significant amount of research and studies into this sector and their work should be acknowledged. In considering hospitality industry, it is valuable to hear from people who are engaged with workers on the ground and tell us what is really happening. In 2016, Sinn Féin carried out research on the treatment of tips for workers in the hospitality sector. That research indicated that one in three workers were not getting their tips. The research by Dr. Curran suggested that figure was one in four, while more recent research undertaken by Unite suggests the figure may be closer to 50%. It may be the case that half of workers who are tipped by a customer are having their tips robbed from them. This is why the Bill is so important. It is also why Sinn Féin wants to see penalties for contravening sections of the Bill increased to a class A fine of €5,000 from a class C fine of €2,500.

Contravention of sections of the Bill equates to employers, in effect, stealing from their workers. We have seen such instances uncovered time and again through WRC investigations. It is often labelled in the media as the recovery of unpaid wages, which is one way to spin it. It is not how I would describe it. This is money that has been stolen. In the past decade alone, €18 million in wages has been returned to workers following WRC investigations. The withholding of wages is particularly rampant in sectors where women and migrant workers make up a large or significant part of the workforce, such as the food and drink industry, the hospitality sector and retail. These are the same sectors where one would expect tips, gratuity and service charges to be left by customers for workers. It is clear, therefore, that we need strong protections and a strong and well resourced WRC. Sinn Féin would like to see a rapid increase in the power of the WRC, including increases in staffing and funding, so that it can investigate workplaces and ensure that workers' rights are being respected and upheld. It is no surprise that the more funding the WRC gets, the more breaches of employment law it uncovers.

My final point is in the broader context of the industry. It follows on from the excellent contribution of my colleague, Senator Gavan, in the Seanad last week. In 2008, the joint labour committee system for the hospitality sector was struck down by employers. That was a significant blow to workers in the industry because the system did not just establish tiered rates of pay such that one could look forward to a career and career progression in the industry, it also dealt with issues such as paid breaks, overtime rates, Sunday premiums, holiday entitlements and sick leave. These were laws that protected low-paid labour. Many of them predated the foundation of the State. It was a significant blow to have those laws struck down by the High Court. The joint labour committee legislation was reintroduced in 2012 but for ten years now, employer groups in the hospitality sector have refused to engage with that process.

Despite the level of State support rightly given to the sector during the pandemic, they still refuse to engage in the joint labour committee process. The Government gave a range of supports to keep the hospitality sector going throughout the pandemic. I am not suggesting that this is somehow a transaction or that workers' rights can be bought from employers - they cannot because, as I always say, the price eventually gets too high. One has to consider the supports that were rightly given to the sector, however. Sinn Féin supported those measures and worked with the Government to ensure that the legislation got through quickly. The sector, however, does not participate in the joint labour committee process. We need to consider that. Indeed, it is fair to say that many of the recruitment and staffing issues the sector faces - we know of these issues because they are well amplified in the media - could be resolved by adhering to the joint labour committee process and ensuring workers have a career path, structure, paid breaks and all those things that need to be codified, have to be enforced and are part of that joint labour committee structure. These points are important in the context of ensuring people can make a decent living in the sector. Some 43% of low-paid workers work in hospitality, retail and wholesale. We need to ensure a better future for them so that people can look forward to a career in those sectors. That will not come about unless there is proper negotiation and engagement. That can happen as part of the joint labour committee structure.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on the Bill. I look forward to working with the Tánaiste on Committee and Remaining Stages of the Bill next week.

In the few minutes I have remaining, I wish to bring to the attention of the Tánaiste an issue that is coming to the fore within the hospitality sector, namely, the harassment of workers. The Tánaiste knows the sector and has engaged with some workers' representatives. He knows that those in the sector are, for the most part, low-paid workers. Many of them are migrants and many are women. They are vulnerable workers. The levels of harassment need to be examined. There is enough anecdotal evidence - the Tánaiste may be aware of it - to suggest there is a serious problem, as there often is where there is a massive power imbalance between the people at the top and those on the shop floor. The levels of harassment, including sexual harassment, within the sector deserve to be examined. I raise this issue because I unexpectedly have some time left in my slot. It is my intention to pursue the issue because it is a serious one. I very much look forward to working with the Tánaiste and the Department to ensure that we can stamp out harassment within the sector. What is happening is not on. This is a vulnerable group of workers. We are here discussing additional protections that are needed because they are a vulnerable group of workers. They are not just vulnerable in the context of tips theft or wages being robbed, they are also vulnerable in a host of other ways. We need to examine that.

I urge any person working in the hospitality sector who is not a member of a trade union to join a trade union. We know that collective action and people power work. We know that one's union is one's voice at work. It is a strong voice for the worker in his or her workplace. Any worker in the sector who is not yet a member of a trade union should find out where his or her union is, join it and get active in it.

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