Vol. 541 No. 5
114 Mrs. B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if she will consider introducing legislation to ensure that tips or service charges paid by customers in hotels and restaurants are passed on in full to the staff for whom they are intended; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23201/01]
With the exception of the treatment of service charges, tips and gratuities in the National Minimum Wage Act, 2000, this matter has not come within the remit of my Department and I do not propose to legislate further on the matter.
The Schedule of the National Minimum Wage Act, 2000, describes as a reckonable component for the purposes of calculating average hourly rate of pay the amount of any service charge distributed to the employee through the payroll; the same Schedule describes as a non-reckonable component any amount distributed to the employee of tips or gratuities paid into a central fund managed by the employer and paid through the payroll.
