Workers must keep all customer tips under new law

Some companies have faced criticism for holding back some or all of the tips meant for staff or for not distributing them fairly.

Unite’s Mr Simpson told the BBC: “We’ve got issues already coming up with some major brands such as Miller & Carter.”

He claimed that the general manager at the steakhouse chain decided how tips were divvied up. “That isn’t democratic and what that has led to is an unfair distribution of tips,” he said.

Miller & Carter’s parent company Mitchells & Butlers said it welcomed the new law which it said brought “much-needed clarity”.

It said: “For many years we have followed the main principles of the new Tips Code of Practice, including, but not limited to, passing on 100% of tips to our team members by encouraging teams, in each business, to decide how best to allocate tips between themselves.”

The company said its policy had been reviewed in light of the new legislation “by an independent professional adviser to ensure that we remain fully compliant”.

Emma Webb from The Kitchen in Ilminster, Somerset, said the new rules would not change anything for her business.

“We have jars with everybody’s name on them and at the end of the day all the tips get shared out between all of the staff,” she said.

“If customers give a tip through the card machine I get my staff to print off the receipt so I take the tips out of the till and put them in the jar.”

The law has not been introduced in Northern Ireland, which Unite said was “completely unacceptable”.

The Northern Ireland executive has been contacted for comment.

Labour’s Justin Madders, Minister for Employment Rights, said the policy was “just the first step of many in protecting workers and placing them at the heart of our economy”.