BHA calls for tipping transparency

RESTAURANTS and hotels should be legally required to tell customers how service charges and tips are distributed among staff. That’s the message from the British Hospitality Association (BHA) in a new initiative proposed to the UK government’s business secretary, Sajid Javid.

The BHA – which represents 40,000 hospitality establishments – wants the government to introduce legislation to make businesses reveal what happens to the ‘extras’ customers pay at the end of a meal.

‘For us, it’s all about transparency,’ said Ufi Ibrahim, chief executive of the BHA, which has outlined the proposal in a letter to the business secretary. ‘Although restaurants are legally entitled to deduct administration costs from service charges, for example, we think it’s important that customers understand exactly how much is deducted and why. Customers should be able to reward good service and know where their money ends up and how much of it goes to the staff.’

Many restaurants and hotels have signed up to the association’s voluntary code of transparency on tips and service charges. But now the BHA wants to make it a legal requirement.

It has been illegal for some years for restaurant owners to use tips and service charges to bring wages up to the national minimum wage. Service charges usually goes into a pool, which is distributed among waiters, front of house, and the kitchen team – allocated according to arrangements agreed by the staff.

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