Fair tips, fair pay: Now the waiters bite back...

Spaghetti House

A recent member of the waiting staff at the Haymarket branch of Spaghetti House, which has nine branches in central London, emailed The Independent: "They pay staff £130 a week. We work 10am until 3pm and from 5.30pm to 11 or 12. For one shift, or one day, you get paid £13.70."

A statement from Spaghetti House's head office confirms that staff are paid a basic wage that equates to below the minimum wage, with credit-card tips on top:

"Spaghetti House Restaurants guarantees minimum hourly wage payments to all its staff... The number of hours in a shift is of five hours at a minimum rate of £13.75. An average working week is of 45 hours for full time waiting staff at a minimum rate of £137.50.

"Rates of pay may vary according to position and experience. Hourly wage minimum rates are achieved by combining company wage with credit card tips. In the event that credit card tips do not reach the required levels, the company subsidises this in order to achieve minimum wage rates.

"The company does not operate a service charge system. A suggested 10 per cent gratuity is optional. This is clearly displayed on all menus, in line with trading standards guidelines. The company does not interfere with cash tips. Staff and management at each restaurant operate their own system...

"The company strongly believe that staff are its biggest asset and aims to treat them fairly and with respect at all times. Moreover, the company operates a transparent tipping policy which is clearly explained to the potential employee before he or she decides to join."

The Restaurant Group

A member of staff working for The Restaurant Group, which includes Chiquito, Garfunkel's, and Est Bar Est, emailed The Independent: "I am paid at the rate of £4.85 per hour with credit card tips making up the rest. While I appreciate the gratuities left by customers, I can't help but want for a fairer and more open system. Our menu states that all of the service charge will be passed to the server, but I feel the company (TRG) is obliged to inform customers that it is being used to pay staff wages." A spokesperson for TRG declined to comment on this suggestion.

Smollensky's

A customer at Smollensky's, which has two branches in London, as well as a recent former member of the waiting staff, claim that the restaurant takes a proportion of the service charge. The customer says: "As you suggest in your campaign, I have started asking where the service charge goes, so on my last visit to Smollensky's I inquired. I couldn't believe my ears – the company pocketed 90 per cent of the service charge, although I was informed the company did pay the minimum wage. I leave a tip or service charge as an extra, confident it would reach the staff. How wrong was I. The worst thing is, I was a regular at this establishment, so over the years I must have left hundreds of pounds to the owners."

A senior spokesperson for The Grill Group, which owns Smollensky's, said: "I am not in a position to comment."

Hard Rock Cafe

Hyde Park Corner, London

A waiter working full-time at this central London branch of Hard Rock Cafe contacted The Independent to say that they were earning just £2.06 an hour, less than half the national minimum wage (which is currently £5.52 for those aged 22 and over). They said that a service charge of 12.5 per cent was added to bills of £30 or more; of that, they said, the waiting staff received only 60 per cent, the rest going to other, non-waiting staff. "Please try to make a change to this behaviour," said the waiter. "Some days I make only £30 through the service charge, of which I get to keep a cut. With my £2.06, it amounts to nothing."

In response, a spokesperson for Hard Rock Cafe said that "servers" or waiters were paid between £2.06 and £4.56 an hour, thus confirming that these employees were being paid a basic salary of below the national minimum wage, though the spokesperson insisted that, depending on business, the restaurants' waiting staff could earn more than this amount with the additional service charge. The spokesperson confirmed that this service charge was split between "key employees", with 80 per cent going to the "server", 16 per cent to kitchen staff, and four per cent to hosts and to bartenders.

Bertorelli Restaurant

Covent Garden, London

A waiter who recently stopped working at the Italian restaurant Bertorelli said that before commencing work there they were told by managers that they would earn the minimum wage, plus service. But the correspondent said that waiters received less than five per cent of the 12.5 per cent service charge automatically added to bills. This resulted in a total wage of around £5.80 an hour, excluding optional tips. The waiter added: "Of course customers thought I would get the service charge, meaning most of them did not leave any tip. Now I have left the job and found one that pays well."

Mark Phillips, the chief executive of The Paramount Group, Bertorelli's parent company, said: "It is not [our] policy to disclose commercially sensitive information such as this, nor are we prepared to comment on discussions that The Independent may have had with other parties. Our staff earn significantly more than the national minimum wage with some waiting staff earning nearly three times this rate."

Gaucho

Various locations, London

A waiter who recently stopped working at Gaucho, a chain of restaurants located across London specialising in Argentine food, contacted The Independent to say that they earned just £2 an hour plus optional tips, and that the company was taking 10 per cent of the service charge automatically added to bills. "I had to give up because I didn't know any more whether I was just a cash-making machine or just a waiter providing service," the former employee wrote in an email. "Please pay attention to this company. They deserve it." Gaucho was approached with details of the allegations but told us that "no one was available for comment".

More top chefs join 'Independent' campaign

"This is a subject and campaign we feel strongly about, and we are keen to have the opportunity to support it. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and River Cottage operate a clear tipping policy. At the River Cottage Canteen in Axminster we do not include a service charge, nor do we make reference to the absence of it. Any tipping is discretionary. Whether the tip is in cash or on a credit card, it is split equally amongst the waiting staff and kitchen porters and is in addition to their salaries."

Spokesman for Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

"We have a 12.5 per cent discretionary service charge. It is distributed to all staff who have a direct influence on customer service (ie not office staff). Each restaurant at Fifteen (Trattoria and Dining Room) has its own pool for credit-card tips and an additional payment made into fortnightly pay. This is calculated fairly based on hours worked over that two-week period. No money is withheld by management. Cash tips are managed solely by staff; the money is evenly distributed amongst the staff at the end of every shift."

Spokesman for Fifteen, the restaurant founded by Jamie Oliver and now owned by the Fifteen Foundation charity

"We add a 12.5 per cent service charge to the final bill. This is entirely discretionary, and if the customer requests it to be taken off it is removed without question. This was introduced in 2005 and the group found it was welcomed by customers as it removes any embarrassment from deciding how much to add. Each restaurant operates a tronc system, and the service charge is distributed to the tronc master, who shares this amongst the staff at their absolute discretion. We are in no way involved in the management or distribution of service charge other than to collect it from guests and pass it to the tronc master. From the service charge, only the credit-card commission is retained and only for the portion of service charge, ie 12.5 per cent. We are happy to back The Independent's campaign."

Spokesman for Gordon Ramsay

"I think the policies operated by some restaurants are appalling. I'm a traditional restaurateur; a service charge is a reward for good service and staff should keep it. It's fair for restaurants to keep a proportion of the service charge to pay for staff drinks and administration, but nowhere near as much as some do. I don't agree that restaurants should profit at all from tips. At the Seahorse we don't have a service charge; it's up to customers to leave a tip, by credit card or in cash. All tips are shared equally among staff. There are only five people in the restaurant. The manager gets a slightly higher share; the rest are on equal shares. The company keeps only the 1 per cent or so it costs to process credit cards and run the tronc . I wholeheartedly support The Independent's campaign."

Mitch Tonks, owner of the Seahorse, Dartmouth, Devon, and founder of FishWorks

The Independent has set out three simple guidelines for fair treatment of waiting staff, asking that the Government introduce legislation to end the widespread unfair tipping practices adopted by many of Britain's restaurants:

1) All restaurants should operate a fair, clear and transparent policy for distributing service charges and gratuities to their staff.

2) All restaurants should display their policy on service charges and gratuities clearly on all their menus.

3) All restaurant waiting staff should be guaranteed a basic salary of at least the minimum wage, excluding gratuities.

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