New bill will protect servers' tips
Posted: 2/28/2012 10:57:02 AM
Updated: 2/28/2012 5:18:32 PM
A new piece of legislation has been drafted by Rep. Chris Blazejewski, with help from Joey DeFrancesco a Providence Hotel working that caught national fame when he filmed him quitting his job with a brass band.
It would prohibit hotel and restaurant owners from requiring that servers turn in all or part of their tips, or mandating participation in tip pools that split tips between anyone other than service employees, wait staff, bartenders, and those who bus tables.
The bill allows tips pools among servers but prohibits it from extending the tips beyond the wait staff.
The legislation is based on similar laws in place in Massachusetts, California, and New York.
The bill requires that credit card tips must be paid in full to the server and no fee can be charged to the server on credit card payments. The bill also states that the employer is not allowed to demand or accept any payment or deduction from a tip given to a server by a patron.
Any violation of the statute would be a misdemeanor punishable by $1,000 fine and, or up to 60 days in jail. It also requires a 12% restitution rate.
Representatives Keable, Handy, Tanzi, and Bennett are co-sponsors.
Read the bill here
Dee DeQuattro | WPRO News
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(2/28/2012 12:09:08 PM) Well it's about time. Having worked in the indusrty for many years I have seen servers and wait staff be bullied and told they must surrender part of their tips to both management and dishwashers hostesses... I can also say at the time I was in the industry, management often deducted from your tip if it was put on a credit card! Bravo |
| - Lee |
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