A hotel has been advised by a state employment authority to compensate a waiter €7,000 for unpaid tips and for being fired unfairly, reports Breaking News.
Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) Adjudicator Catherine Byrne reported that the employee in question said he was suspended after complaining about unpaid tips and that his pay had been withheld.
“It seems to me that, based on how he was treated for making a complaint about the distribution of tips, his efforts to raise a grievance would have met with little success,” Ms Byrne said, adding that “he could have raised a grievance before he resigned,” reports Breaking News.
“I accept that the worker had to leave his job, and I note the employer’s failure to respond to this claim,” Ms. Byrne said.
According to Ms. Byrne’s anonymised ruling, the employee claimed that tips exceeded his pay, and the employer did not dispute the employee’s account of events.
According to Ms. Byrne, the employee’s paystubs demonstrate that he was making an average of €500 a week before to his suspension.
She said: “At a minimum, if he served 10 tables a day and if he was paid €10 by each table, it is reasonable to assume that he earned around €500 per week in tips. If he had received the tips which he claims he was given by customers, he would have received €8,000. Based on a generally accepted practice that tips are shared with kitchen staff, I estimate that the worker would have taken home around €5,000 in tips,” reports Breaking News.
In March 2023, the waiter started working at the employer’s hotel in the Midlands. He had been employed since October 3rd, 2022, by a related company in the south of Ireland.
The man worked on Sundays and was paid €13.50 and €12.50 an hour respectively, reports Breaking News.
The employer’s head of human resources was present at the hearing, along with Mr. Danny Ryan BL, who represented the employer. Mr. Ryan informed Ms. Byrne that he would not be answering the worker’s allegations on behalf of his client.
The employee testified at the dispute hearing that the hotel restaurant where he worked was frequently busy, with up to 200 patrons served each day, reports Breaking News.
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