A bill designed to stop bar and restaurant bosses from keeping their staff’s tips is set to be signed into UK law very soon after passing successfully through the House of Lords.
The Employment (Allocation of Tips) Bill will require employers to make sure that all tips, gratuities and service charges are paid to staff in full without deductions by the end of the following month.
Around two million hospitality employees in the UK are expected to see a cash boost for their hard work and attention when the bill is enshrined into law later this year.
The bill will amend the 1996 Employment Rights Act, introducing a new enforcement mechanism allowing employees to make complaints and seek redress wherever owners are found to not be following the letter of the law.
It’s now waiting for its final stage of Royal Assent, having passed its third and final reading in the House of Lords at the start of 2023. At this point, it will officially become an act of parliament.
Conservative former minister Lord Robathon, who sponsored the Bill in the upper house, said: “Most businesses already allocate tips fairly to their staff but regrettably a minority have not done so.
ADVERTISEMENT
“This gives the staff, often among the least well-paid in hospitality, waiters for instance and others… it gives them the opportunity to insist they are given the service charge which many of us in restaurants pay whenever we go to a restaurant, and they get the tips rather than it going into the profits of perhaps a big company.
“This does not happen that much, but it does happen a bit and we need to make sure it does not happen at all.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Business Minister Lord Johnson of Lainston added: “Bringing forward this new law will protect millions of workers, among them many of the lowest paid and give them an avenue to seek remedies.
“Consumers will rest assured the tips they leave are going as intended to reward the good service and hard work of staff, rather than boosting the revenue of businesses.”
Featured image –Commons Wikimedia
News
How will the Government’s new digital ID alternative for alcohol sales work?
Emily Sergeant
All licensed venues across England and Wales now have the choice to introduce digital proof of age for alcohol sales alongside physical.
Instead of having to hand over physical ID that contains personal information, such as names and home addresses, customers now have the choice to simply provide confirmation that they are 18 or over on their phone – helping to better protect privacy and personal safety in the process.
This means that, no matter whether you’re buying a drink at your favourite pub, heading to a festival, or enjoying a night out at a concert, you won’t need to worry if you’ve left your ID at home.
According to the Government, this new change will benefit businesses greatly too, as certified digital services are able to check that an ID is genuine and belongs to the person presenting it much easier than the alternative can, which therefore helps to reduce the risk of any fake or borrowed IDs going undetected.
Well, according to the Government, it could be as simple as a customer showing a QR code for staff to scan, or tapping their phone against a compatible reader, where staff will then receive a clear confirmation on their device that the customer has passed the age check.
This change follows a 2024 Government consultation where it was reported that 72% of respondents supported the use of digital identities for age verification when buying alcohol.
Digital Government Minister Stephanie Peacock reiterated that ‘it will remain an individual or business’ choice whether to use or adopt [digital ID]’ and that physical ID will ‘still remain a valid way’ for customers to prove their age.
“This groundbreaking change in the law will mean you do not need to carry a physical ID, nor hand over sensitive personal information such as your name or address just to prove your age, allowing everyone to feel safer on a night out,” she concluded.
Featured Image – Robin Worrall (via Unsplash)
News
Manchester to host G20 Summit in 2027 with more than a dozen world leaders descending on the city
Emily Sergeant
Manchester has been confirmed as the host city for the G20 Summit next year.
It was already announced back in November last year that the G20 Summit would be coming to the UK in 2027, and plans were apparently already being discussed to host it in Manchester even before Andy Burnham became Prime Minister and Number 10 North was set up.
But now, ahead of this year’s leaders’ summit being held in Miami in December, it has been confirmed that the G20 Summit will arrive in Manchester in November 2027.
Manchester is said to have been picked to host the leaders’ summit because of its ‘cultural heritage’.
Bringing together 19 of the world’s largest economies and two major multilateral bodies – the European Union and the African union – G20 members who will be invited to attend the summit next year make up 85% of global GDP, 75% of international trade, and two-thirds of the world’s population as a whole.
Manchester has been confirmed to host the G20 Summit in 2027 / Credit: 10 Downing Street | Paul Kagame (Flickr)
G20 members are also some of the UK’s closest economic partners, the Government insists.
17 of the UK’s top 20 global export markets attend the summit, as do 18 of the UK’s top 20 sources of foreign direct investment.
The presidency of the G20 is currently held by the US but will pass to the UK after the leaders’ summit hosted by the president at his Trump National Doral Miami golf resort in December.
The 2027 summit will be held at Manchester Central, it has been confirmed, and other locations across the UK will also host other G20 events as part of the year-long presidency, but these are yet to be announced.
Georgina Pellant -
25th April 2023 
