Fair tips fighter fired

The fight against unfair tripping practices continues, after Unite staged a protest outside the STK restaurant at the Melia Hotel last night (June 6) in support of a sacked worker.

Robert Czegely, a waiter at the restaurant and fair tips activist, was sacked for “gross misconduct” after a trade union leaflet was found in his locker.

Czegely, who had been working at the restaurant for the last two years and in the hospitality industry for eight, has been leading the campaign to gain trade union recognition at his workplace.

Unite is now taking Czegely’s case to an employment tribunal for unfair dismissal.

Unite shined a spotlight on STK’s grossly unfair tipping practices earlier this year – workers alleged that bosses were using a majority of the 15 per cent service charge it levied on customers to top up their own wages.

Internal documents showed that while all staff technically earn the minimum wage at the restaurant, service charges were enhancing management’s earnings to more than £50,000 a year. It is understood that more than half of the service charge would go to a small group of managers, while the remainder was distributed to the rest of the restaurant’s staff.

Campaign

Following the revelations in the Evening Standard and the Guardian, Unite has campaigned for union recognition at the restaurant chain. Despite management saying that it wanted to work with trade unions, union recognition has not yet been granted.

Unite has called on owners of the hotel chain, Spanish-based Melia Group, to honour their agreements – the Group had previously signed a global agreement to allow unions access to all of their workplaces.

Unite regional officer Dave Turnbull condemned the sacking of Czegely.

“It is truly shameful that a few days after business secretary, Sajid Javid indicated that he would act to ensure transparency and fairness on tips and service charges, a global hotel chain, such as Melia, should sack an employee for supporting our campaign to achieve this outcome,” he said.

“Melia proudly boasts of its ethical business stance on workers’ rights, yet this sacking flies in the face of any such claims,” Turnbull added. “We are clear that this dismissal was in breach of Robert’s basic legal right to join and participate in a trade union.

“It also brings into sharp focus the need for the business secretary to underpin any regulation on tips and service charge with additional worker protection,” he went on to say.

“It should also send a message to senior executives within Melia that workers in their UK properties should enjoy the same basic rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining in other countries across the globe.”

Following a concerted Unite campaign last summer that gained enormous media traction, several restaurants dropped their policy of charging admin fees of up to 10 per cent or more on tips that were left on credit cards.

Charging admin fees had previously left many waiting staff out of pocket to the tune of thousands of pounds each year.

Investigation

The success of the Unite fair tips campaign also forced business secretary Sajid Javid to order an investigation into tipping practices.

The government is now proposing that the voluntary code of practice governing tipping practices be put on statutory footing; that customers should be made fully aware of what is done with the tips they leave; and that employers’ deducting of tips should be prevented or limited unless compliance with tax law is required.

The business secretary said the government proposals will “make tipping fairer, clamping down on unfair practices and securing a better deal for the millions of workers in the service industry. We will look closely at all the options, including legislation if necessary.”

Now the government has launched a two-month consultation ending on June 27 and invites the public to contribute their own ideas.

Be sure to send in your own contribution to the consultation before the deadline – find out more here.

And help support the campaign to reinstate Robert Czegely by signing Unite’s petition here.

Pic by Mark Thomas