{"id":5546,"date":"2015-09-09T14:27:20","date_gmt":"2015-09-09T13:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=5546"},"modified":"2015-09-09T16:00:19","modified_gmt":"2015-09-09T15:00:19","slug":"tipping-the-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=5546","title":{"rendered":"Tipping the balance"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fair tips campaign has roared on all summer and been hailed by the Guardian as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098impressive\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. There have been key victories, but the work\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not over yet.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rare for a union campaign to feature so much on news agenda\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. But Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Fair Tips campaign to stop restaurants skimming off some of the tips given to waiters by customers has hit the headlines.<\/p>\n

 
\nIt put the spotlight on those employers ripping off low paid staff and hoodwinking their customers. It was the second try by many of the big rip off restaurant chains at taking a bite out of the tips given to waiters by customers.<\/p>\n

 
\nIn 2009 Gordon Brown\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Labour Government plugged a loophole which allowed restaurants to take tips into account when it came to paying the minimum wage. It has caused outrage among customers when Unite highlighted the restaurants that were doing it and forced a change in the law.<\/p>\n

 
\nBut the rip off restaurants found new ways of creaming off tips given to low paid waiting staff by customers. Some charged an admin fee on tips left when debit and credit were used to pay\u00e2\u20ac\u201c Pizza Express took 8% – while others reportedly used the money to fund staff training.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On the campaign trail<\/strong><\/em>
\nSo this summer Unite went back on the campaign trail. On 21 May \u00e2\u20ac\u201c National Waiters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Day \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Unite launched its latest campaign with the first of many protests outside Pizza Express in London\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Leicester Square.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThroughout the summer, the union\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s activists did a sterling job, taking the message direct to customers and staff alike\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Chantal Chegrinec who worked on the campaign told UNITELive. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe went into Pizza Express branches to speak to waiting staff, followed up with weekly protests, handed out hundreds of flyers with customers given a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098scrap the admin fee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 postcard to leave with their cash tips.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe message was simple — \u00e2\u20ac\u0098stop pinching staff tips\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 — with customers urged to tip in cash until the chain axed its unfair fee. It hit a nerve with customers.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In July the campaign went online with the launch of a TUC petition calling on Pizza Express chief executive Richard Hodgson to scrap the 8% admin fee the company skimmed off of tips. It spread like wildfire on social media \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Unite targeted the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s twitter account, tweeting @PizzaExpress on a near daily basis, sticking to our simple message \u00e2\u20ac\u201c scrap the admin fee. The public joined in.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tipping point<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Chantal Chegrinec says in the campaign went truly turbocharged after the Independent published the first of many pieces on tipping, quoting Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s secret Pizza Express worker.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFrom that point on, tipping was in the headlines in all major newspapers, on television and the radio on an almost daily basis\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe had reached the tipping point on tipping.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Unite regional officer Dave Turnbull sat on the sofa with Eamon and Ruth on This Morning, and spoke on the radio and to journalists in key regional broadcast and print media,” Chegrinec added. “It even forced the Business Secretary Sajid Javid to act when he announced an investigation into abuse of tipping.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This highlights an old campaigning truth \u00e2\u20ac\u201c ministers don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t acknowledge a problem until they start reading it in their morning news clipping service. Like them or loathe them, the mainstream media are important in delivering a campaign’s message.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In August, Unite stepped it up a notch with its first \u00e2\u20ac\u0098meal of justice\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. This is when protesters went into a restaurant, enjoyed a meal and when the bill came, one person stood up and told customers about the admin fee while the others handed out postcards.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Customers responded with spontaneous applause.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So Why did this campaign hit a nerve?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBecause customers were rightly outraged to discover that the tips they leave to show their appreciation to the (minimum-waged) staff that served them were being creamed off by profitable restaurant chains – many of which are owned by off-shore private equity firms\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Chegrinec. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bNot surprisingly it left a bad taste in most people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mouths.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rapid impact<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Four massive restaurant chains \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Zizzi, Ask, Pizza Express, and Giraffe – have already seen sense and stopped the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098admin fee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rip off. Now, Unite will turn its attention to the other restaurants still not playing fair on tips. Because as we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen there are still too many restaurants taking a slice of staff tips including Cote, Las Iguanas, Caf\u0102\u00a9 Rouge, Belgo and Bella Italia to name a few.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Regional officer Dave Turnbull knows the campaign has had a rapid impact by shining the spotlight on bad practice. He sees the issue off clamping down on the rip off restaurants is a marathon and not sprint.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe campaign really took off because it put the spotlight on restaurants taking a slice out of the tips left to low paid workers,” he said. “When a customer leaves a tip we all know who they are leaving it to, so there was a real sense of unfairness to waiting staff and hoodwinking of customers who thought their waiter was getting all of the tip they left.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMany of the big chains had been using tips to subsidise minimum wage jobs and we closed that loophole in 2009. We did this by putting the spotlight on those employers who were profiting from bad practices when it came to tips left by customers to waiting staff.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAll the issues we are exposing now we exposed then. The employers signed up to a voluntary code of practice. Although we were not confident that was the best way we supported it subject to it being reviewed within a year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn 2010 the coalition Government came in and would not honour the review,” Turnbull added. “In 2011 we took a delegation to Ed Davey when he was the relevant business and employment minister. He promised a review and then did nothing.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While the new business secretary Sajid Javid has now also promised a review, Dave Turnbull is a touch sceptical, give his Department\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s track record.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bJavid\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s department has known about these problems for five years and refused to act,” he said. “All he is offering is a new Code of Practice which put a ceiling on the fee that restaurants can take from tips given to waiting staff.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not convinced by that. All it does is legitimise bad practice by employers in ripping off low paid staff. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be working with good employers to try and stop that.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite also sees the benefit from a campaign raising the possibility of getting a better unionised workforce, the only real guarantee of locking in a resolution that will stand the test of time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be following up on the contacts we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve made throughout the campaign to help unionise the workforce and lock in any gains we can make for low paid workers on this issue,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165\u00c2\u00a0 said Turnbull.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fair tips campaign has roared on all summer and been hailed by the Guardian as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098impressive\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. There have been key victories, but the work\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not over yet. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rare for a union campaign to feature so much on news agenda\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. But Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Fair Tips campaign to stop restaurants skimming off some of the tips […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4234,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[302,366],"wps_subtitle":"Unite's fair tips campaign powers on","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5546"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5546"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5548,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5546\/revisions\/5548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}