New bill guaranteeing tips for hospitality workers moves closer to becoming law
A bill to ensure hospitality workers and others receive their tips in full has moved closer to becoming law after gaining cross-party support in the House of Commons.
Plans to legislate in this area have been delayed since 2015 when a government consultation found restaurant customers were overwhelmingly in favour of the tips they paid going to the people who served them.
Further research the same year found that many owners of restaurants, bars, and cafes add discretionary service charges to customers’ bills but then keep some of the money themselves.
Under the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Bill, employers would have a legal obligation on employers to ensure all tips, gratuities and service charges are paid to workers in full.
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Employees will be able to request tipping records and take employers to a tribunal if they feel tips have been withheld.
The long-delayed legislation would also enable the government to create a code of practice intended to ensure fairness and transparency in how the money is allocated among staff, and introduce an enforcement mechanism for employees to make complaints and seek redress.
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In October 2018, then prime minister Theresa May announced plans to deal with tips but Brexit turmoil prevented the legislation from going ahead.
Similarly Boris Johnson, when he was in the top job, also looked to make the change when in October 2019 the Queen’s Speech committed to bringing forward the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Bill.
Following the snap general election that year, the Queen’s Speech incorporated the measures into a proposed Employment Bill – but it did not materialise in the last parliamentary session.
The Queen’s Speech in May 2021 did not list an Employment Bill or a specific tips bill.
Law will ‘create confidence for consumers’
Now, Tory MP Virginia Crosbie has sponsored the bill – and on Friday it cleared its final hurdle in the Commons and will progress to the House of Lords for further scrutiny.
Speaking during the bill’s third reading on Friday, Ms Crosbie told MPs: “The tipping bill has a simple message: to promote fairness and to promote transparency, to ensure that workers receive the tips they earn.
“This will create a level playing field for businesses who are already passing on tips to workers in a fair and transparent way.
“It will create confidence for consumers, who will know that the full value of the tip that they give will go to the workers.”
She added: “It is estimated that this bill will benefit around one million workers in the sector, with a financial benefit of around £200 each year.
“With the cost of living at the front of a lot of people’s minds, this bill will help those workers who are wrongly not receiving the money that they are due from the tips that they have earned.”
Business minister Kevin Hollinrake said the bill will protect workers from “bad bosses” and give them an avenue to seek remedies.
He said: “Businesses will be assured they are not being undercut by companies where bosses are keeping tips for themselves.
“Consumers will have increased confidence that their tips are going to the workers they are intended for.”
World
Ukraine war: 14 killed as Russian missile and drone attacks strike Kyiv – including American citizen
Russian missile and drone attacks have killed 14 people in Kyiv overnight, according to Ukrainian officials.
A 62-year-old US citizen who suffered shrapnel wounds is among the dead.
At least 99 others were wounded in strikes that hollowed out a residential building and destroyed dozens of apartments.
Pic: AP
Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble.
Images show a firefighter was among those hurt, with injured residents evacuated from their homes.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as “one of the most terrifying attacks on Kyiv” – and said Russian forces had fired 440 drones and 32 missiles as civilians slept in their homes.
“[Putin] wants the war to go on,” he said. “It is troubling when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to it.”
Pic: AP
Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said 27 locations across the capital have been hit – including educational institutions and critical infrastructure.
He claimed the attack, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, was one of the largest on the capital since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
Drones swarmed over the city, with an air raid alert remaining in force for seven hours.
One person was killed and 17 others injured as a result of separate Russian drone strikes in the port city of Odesa.
Pic: Reuters
It comes as the G7 summit in Canada continues, which Ukraine’s leader is expected to attend.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold talks with Donald Trump – but the president has announced he is unexpectedly returning to Washington because of tensions in the Middle East.
Ukraine’s foreign minister says Moscow’s decision to attack Kyiv during the summit is a signal of disrespect to the US.
Moscow has launched a record number of drones and missiles in recent weeks, and says the attacks are in retaliation for a Ukrainian operation that targeted warplanes in airbases deep within Russian territory.
Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko says fires broke out in two of the city’s districts as a result of debris from drones shot down by the nation’s air defences.
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Pic: AP
On X, Ukraine’s foreign ministry wrote: “Russia’s campaign of terror against civilians continues. Its war against Ukraine escalates with increased brutality.
“The only way to stop Russia is tighter pressure – through sanctions, more defence support for Ukraine, and limiting Russia’s ability to keep sowing war.”
Olena Lapyshnak, who lived in one of the destroyed buildings, said: “It’s horrible, it’s scary, in one moment there is no life. I can only curse the Russians, that’s all I can say. They shouldn’t exist in this world.”
World
Israeli tank shelling kills 51 people waiting for aid in Khan Younis, Hamas-run health ministry says
Israeli tank shellfire has killed at least 51 Palestinians in Khan Younis, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.
Hundreds of others have been injured, with “dozens of critical cases” arriving at a medical complex.
It is feared that the number of fatalities will rise.
Pic: Reuters
The strikes took place as people waited for United Nations and commercial aid trucks in the southern Gaza city.
Witnesses said that Israeli forces carried out an airstrike on a nearby home before opening fire toward the crowd.
“Emergency, intensive care, and operating rooms are experiencing severe overcrowding,” a statement said.
Officials say medical staff “are operating with limited supplies of life-saving medicines” – with the ministry renewing an “urgent appeal” to increase aid.
Pic: Reuters
Hours earlier, Donald Trump had joined other G7 leaders to call for a “de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza”.
The Israeli military is yet to comment on this incident.
On Monday, Gaza’s health ministry said at least 34 people were shot dead near food distribution centres.
This was the highest reported daily total since Israel and US-backed aid centres opened last month, with thousands of Palestinians moving through Israeli military-controlled areas to reach them.
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