Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Section 2 goes to the heart of the Bill insofar as it defines tips and gratuities and introduces the concept of obligatory tronc schemes in all employment where tips and gratuities are a feature. I addressed the House on the Bill in January 2018 and I will take this opportunity to reiterate what I said then, which was that we all wish to protect employees and ensure they receive their entitlements. Ireland has a robust suite of employment legislation to ensure this is the case. It was recently strengthened by the addition of the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018.

While I believe that, in principle, employees are entitled to keep the tips they earn and have worked for, we must distinguish in employment rights terms between matters that are the subject of specific employment rights obligations, such as wages, and matters outside the direct control of the employers, such as tips, particularly when it is intended to introduce offences into law. Last year, I raised a number of concerns in this regard that have not been addressed in the amendments that have been tabled.

We must be cognisant that legislating in this area without being fully aware of how it will impact on current practices and whether it could lead to unintended consequences could have a negative impact on employers and employees alike. For example, the section introduces a single definition of a tip or gratuity, which includes service charge but, under the National Minimum Wage Act, tips and service charges are treated as two distinct matters dealt with differently in terms of their reckonability for the purposes of calculating the national minimum wage. These are the type of issues that can lead to confusion and will raise questions about the workability of the Bill.

In the course of the early debate on the Bill I indicated that my colleague, the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, intended to request the Low Pay Commission to examine current practices on tips and report back with its findings. The Minister has done so and has received its report, which she will publish later this month.As part of the deliberative process, the commission consulted a range of stakeholders, including the Government, political parties, trade unions and sectoral interests. It is vitally important the commission’s report should inform the debate on this Bill, as well as the wider debate on the approach to tipping. For this reason, while not opposing the Bill at this Stage, the Government is reserving its position on it. In particular, I flag the possibility that the Government may bring forward amendments on Report Stage.