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Tipping legislation scrutinised in hospitality webinar

In May 2023, the Tipping Bill achieved Royal Assent, making it soon-to-be illegal for employers to withhold tips. According to the government, an estimated £200m a year will go back into the pockets of staff by retaining tips that would have otherwise been deducted.

A panel of speakers, chaired by Rob Paterson, Access Hospitality’s head of hospitality employee experience solutions alongside UKHospitality’s public affairs director David Sheen, Andy Hamman of The Tronc Advisor and Dan Hawkie of TiPJAR, discussed the implications of the Tipping Bill and answered several questions from industry operators on potential changes they might need to make to their existing tronc systems.

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Hospitality operators will also be obliged to have a clear and available policy on the distribution of tips as well as to keep records on tips and the distribution of them. Agency workers are also covered by the legislation when it comes into force in July.

“Businesses would be well advised to be ahead of the line on this as July is fast approaching,” said UKHospitality’s David Sheen, who added that the Code of Practice wasn’t overly prescriptive, so businesses can comply in the best way that works for them, although it is imperative to have a tipping policy.

“Tie your policy back to the Code of Practice and the more terminology you use from the Code the better,” he added.

“Your policy must be available to all members of staff and agency workers will also need access to it. The hospitality sector will be in the spotlight when the legislation comes in, so make sure you are watertight when it comes to it,” he said, adding that detailed guidelines on compliance will be made available from UKHospitality.

Key issues raised by operators during the webinar included the definition of a tip, the consequences of not complying with the new legislation and whether existing tronc systems would comply.

“Much of the detail of compliance will be up to each operator as they see appropriate to their business,” said Access Hospitality’s Rob Paterson. “But the number of questions we received for this webinar shows the level of concern about compliance and the changes operators might need to make.”

You can listen to a recording of the tipping webinar here.

• UKHospitality
• Tipjar
• Access Hospitality
• Tipping Bill
• David Sheen