{"id":15363,"date":"2018-06-12T14:58:05","date_gmt":"2018-06-12T13:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=15363"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:42","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:42","slug":"tgi-fridays-greg-clark-tipping-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=15363","title":{"rendered":"Failure to act"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Striking TGI Fridays workers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve downed tools on several successive Fridays over the last month \u00e2\u20ac\u201c today (June 12) took their case to the government.<\/p>\n

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The workers, along with their official mascot Bruce the Burger, delivered a letter to business secretary Greg Clark highlighting the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s failure to crack down on tipping abuses as it promised nearly two years ago.<\/p>\n

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The two-month consultation on tips, ordered by then-business secretary Sajid Javid, ended on June 27, 2016, following an\u00c2\u00a0eight-month review into tipping practices<\/a>. But nearly two years later, waiters across the UK are\u00c2\u00a0still waiting<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0for tipping justice, and the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s failure to act, the TGI Fridays workers say, has allowed abuse to continue unabated.<\/p>\n

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TGI Fridays workers are now fighting a tipping policy management railroaded through earlier this year that sees 40 per cent of waiters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 card tips distributed to kitchen staff. Waiters are now losing on average about \u00c2\u0141250 each month.<\/p>\n

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The striking waiters have pointed out that the policy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s real intention is to claw back losses after the new national living wage was introduced, instead of giving kitchen staff a much-deserved proper pay rise.<\/p>\n

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Failed promises<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Unite regional officer Dave Turnbull lambasted the government for failing to live up to its promises.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bDespite the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s well-publicised \u00e2\u20ac\u0098investigation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and subsequent consultation into tipping abuses which closed nearly two years ago, nothing has been done,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bRogue bosses like TGI Fridays are being let off the hook to abuse tips and exploit government\/HMRC guidelines (E24) on tips and troncs, to boost their own profits and offset the cost of the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pay rise to low earners.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHow can it be right, that some of the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lowest paid workers are worse off now than they were three years ago when the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s flagship national living wage (NLW) policy was first introduced?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turnbull added.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWorkers at TGI Fridays have already had time and a half payments for working bank holidays axed and free staff meals scrapped since the NLW was introduced three years ago,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he highlighted. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhen the company announced a 40 per cent cut to their tips early this year, they said \u00e2\u20ac\u0098enough.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s failure to act is fostering exploitation and industrial unrest. It is also leading to higher staff turnover and skill shortages and is hampering Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s efforts to work with the industry on a voluntary code of practice on fairness and transparency.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite is demanding that the business secretary, Greg Clark, stop dragging his feet and take action on tips.<\/p>\n

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Labour policies<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

TGI Fridays workers demanding tipping justice today from the business secretary comes just two days after Labour announced on Sunday (June 10) it would ensure waiters received 100 per cent of their tips under a Labour government.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bTips should be kept by the staff who earn them, not employers,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not fair or right that in businesses across the country, hardworking hospitality workers have had their tips pocketed by their bosses under the guise of bogus admin fees, or to cover breakages, till shortages or customer walkouts.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLabour will make it illegal for rogue employers to make deductions from tips, so staff get to keep 100 per cent, and customers know who their money is going to.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Corbyn also announced a raft of policies to tackle sexual harassment, which is also endemic in the restaurant industry. The measures include legislating to prevent making any contractual clauses (NDAs) which stop disclosure of future discrimination, harassment or victimisation; doubling the timeframe within which employment tribunals can be taken; and requiring employers to publish their sexual harassment policy and the steps being taken to implement it on their external website.<\/p>\n

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Turnbull praised Labour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new policies.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLabour has promised to deliver justice for hospitality workers, showing that it really is on the side of working people, the government needs to do better,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

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BBC Daily Politics<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

BBC Daily Politics today (June 12) also highlighted the issue of tipping practices, with TGI Fridays worker Amy explaining why she and her colleagues were taking strike action.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bGuests deserve to know where their money is going,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said, pointing out that while waiters often do share tips with other staff, the decision should be made by waiters themselves.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bEveryone deserves a share of the tip but the difference in our situation was that it was a decision made by the employer independently and it was taken out of our hands.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Catch the full interview with Amy and a panel of guests discussing tipping practices\u00c2\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Striking TGI Fridays workers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve downed tools on several successive Fridays over the last month \u00e2\u20ac\u201c today (June 12) took their case to the government.     The workers, along with their official mascot Bruce the Burger, delivered a letter to business secretary Greg Clark highlighting the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s failure to crack down on tipping […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12698,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[302,867,888],"wps_subtitle":"TGI Fridays workers demand government action on tips","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15363"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15363"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26143,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15363\/revisions\/26143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}