The hospitality industry must pay temps their fair share of customer tips or risk legal action under the new Agency Worker Regulations, a lawyer has warned.
Although many of the UK’s largest leisure chains have in the past failed to share gratuities with agency staff, individuals with 12 weeks’ service will now be entitled to receive their portion of the money, whether it is paid in cash or credit card form.
Jim Lister, head of employment at law firm Pannone, said: “We have received enquiries from leisure companies that are unclear about the new regulations. I would urge those that operate a shared tip system to review their policies to include agency workers with more than 12 weeks service or they could find themselves falling foul of the new regulations.”
Under the legislation, which came into force on 1 October, the definition of ‘pay’ for temporary staff includes specific provisions for them to receive payment or reward for work that is directly attributable to the quality or quality of that work.
As a result, because most employers divide tips among personnel based on the number of hours that they work, agency staff who have worked for them for 12 weeks or more will be eligible for renumeration too. The same theory applies to those companies that impose compulsory customer service charges.
