Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste for introducing this legislation, which provides legal protection for workers in respect of tips and gratuities. It will mean any tips received cannot be counted towards an employee's basic pay; they must be counted as additional and separate.

The treatment of tips and gratuities has been a long-standing issue that is regularly raised by employees and trade unions. Historically, all good employers left it to workers to make their own arrangements around tips. However, with the advent of card payments, particularly contactless payments during the Covid-19 pandemic, employers and management became involved in processing these payments. In some cases, the distribution of electronic tips was facilitated but in many establishments, tips paid by card could not be processed. There are also reports of tips and gratuities being included as part of basic wages by some unscrupulous employers, as referred to earlier.

The aim of this Bill is to provide clarity on the meaning of tips, gratuities and service charges, to place tips and gratuities, but not service charges, outside the scope of a person's contractual wages, to oblige employers to display prominently their policy on the distribution of both cash and card payments and to oblige employers to distribute fairly, equitably and in a transparent manner tips that are received in an electronic form, that is, through debit or credit card payments or by way of smartphones. This will provide a legal basis and certainty for employees in respect of tips. It will also provide certainty to the public. When paying for a meal, especially when paying by card or smartphone, many people are unaware of how, or whether, tips and service charges are distributed among staff. Once this law is enacted, all employers will be required to show clearly how tips and service charges are dealt with in their businesses. This will provide clarity for both customers and staff.

Most establishments already treat their employees fairly with regard to tips. For them, these provisions will mean no change beyond having to display their policy clearly, which is extremely welcome. People working in hospitality and other service sectors have made tremendous efforts during the pandemic to keep services going. In many cases, they did so at some risk to themselves and, indeed, their families. This Bill will provide legal protections in respect of tips and gratuities and it is very welcome. I thank the Tánaiste and his officials for introducing it.

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