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A campaign launched by The Independent last week aims to highlight the treatment of waiters and waitresses working in some of the biggest name high-street restaurant chains. In an article entitled “Revealed: how the restaurant chains pocket your tips” The Independent exposed a series of unfair practices in the restaurant industry. The article showed how some restaurant workers are not paid their tips in addition to a standard wage; instead, tips given by customers in the belief that they are rewarding good service are used to top up wages to the legal minimum wage. Other restaurant workers receive no tips, and workers in one Covent Garden restaurant in London reported receiving no basic wages at all, and instead are being paid entirely by the tips that they receive. According to the article, the restaurants are simply exploiting a loophole in the law, but the feeling that they are also exploiting their workers is difficult to shake.

Working conditions in the hospitality industry have long been criticised as being below expected standards. In the US, the union UNITE HERE have organised a high profile Hotel Workers Rising campaign aimed at raising the wages of workers throughout the States. In the UK, the TUC recently published findings from the Commission on Vulnerable Employment, which focused on low wage service work. But there has been no specific focus on improving wages or working conditions in the restaurant trade.

An increasing number of workers within the hospitality industry are vulnerable migrant workers. Many work behind the scenes as kitchen attendants, cleaners, pot-washers or night porters. In May this year, the Justice 4 Cleaners campaign in the City of London, successfully raised the issues of wages for cleaners employed by cleaning contractors to work in some of the City of London’s largest and most affluent high-rises. The Independent’s story suggests campaigners may have to broaden their focus from cleaners to all low wage service workers.

In Impactt’s experience, where working conditions are not transparent and there is no pressure to improve, there is widespread non-compliance with expected standards and, in some cases, legal requirements. Many workers in this industry are young workers who are working over the legal maximum for evening or night hours. Migrant workers are particularly susceptible to working excessive hours during the peak season, in order to send remittances home, cover for reduced incomes during the low season, or simply to make ends meet.

Impactt welcomes Trade Union and media attention on the conditions of workers in the hospitality industry. Restaurant-goers should be prompted to ask questions about what their tips are funding, showing their unwillingness to be complicit in the underpayment of waiting staff, and ensuring that restaurants and hotels are held accountable for conditions at the ‘fork face’.