New Clause 1
Employment Bill [Lords]
2:30 pm
Hugo Swire (East Devon, Conservative)
I support new clause 7, and I largely support what my hon. Friend the Member for Preseli Pembrokeshire has said, but I want it to go a lot further. It hinges on the word “gratuity”—a tip. A gratuity is given to someone who has done something above what we would normally expect them to do for us. The whole issue of tipping is completely out of control in this country. I have never understood why a taxi driver who is rendering us a service when we contract him to take us from A to B expects a 10, 11 or 12 per cent. tip on top. Even when I was a little younger than I am now, taxi drivers used to emerge from the comfort and warmth of their front seats to open the door and help elderly people with suitcases. Alas, that is no longer the case, yet they still expect a tip on top of what we pay them. That is completely unacceptable.
I represent a constituency that has many people working in the service industry. The industry is casual and seasonable, and it pays a low wage. To them, the minimum wage is important. I would come down harder than my hon. Friend the Member for Preseli Pembrokeshire on the Italian restaurateur, or on any other restaurateur who acted in that way. There is evidence throughout the country of people regarding gratuities or tipping as a supplement with which to bring poor wages up to the minimum wage. Such a practice should be illegal, and it should be enshrined in law that it can never happen.