Are Servers Guaranteed Their Tip Money? There’s No Law For It in Nova Scotia
HALIFAX–Tipping is so ingrained in our culture that we barely give it a second thought. And we assume every cent of our tip goes to the server or other employees.
But that is not always the case. Many hospitality and service industry workers in Nova Scotia have stories of tips being withheld or deducted by their employers for a variety of reasons.
Two Halifax organizations have come together to educate the public, and fellow workers, about the issues around gratuities. The Halifax Workers’ Action Centre and Nova Scotia Hospitality Workers United will hold a one-hour webinar on July 19. The groups are calling on the province to enact “tip-theft” legislation to ensure 100 per cent of tips remain in the pockets of the staff.
Other provinces already have similar laws. The Nova Scotia NDP presented proposed legislation on the topic in 2018, but the bill wasn’t passed into law.
“The important part is to make sure that we have legislation,” said Courtney Morrison of Nova Scotia Hospitality Workers United. “Every restaurant is going to operate differently. There’s as many processes as there are restaurants.”
Lisa Cameron, the executive director of the Halifax Workers Action Centre, said her organization receives questions often about gratuities, and how much of it belongs to the worker.
“We speak daily to non-unionized workers who are having issues or have questions about their basic employment rights. And we have heard lots of questions from restaurant workers about the nature of their tips. Are they legally entitled to them?”
“Right now, we have a very unsatisfactory answer, which is there is no legislation protecting your tips and, therefore, if your employer is stealing your tips, there’s nothing legally that you can do.”
The Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia is also taking this issue seriously. It recently caught wind of a petition calling for tip-theft legislation. Natasha Chestnut, the association’s executive director, said it has sparked conversations within the industry.
“We haven’t received any data about incidents of tip theft occurring but we take this very, very seriously,” says Chestnut. “We do not condone employers stealing tips from their employees.”
“In terms of a position on legislation, we’ve recently, in full transparency, just brought this forward at our most recent board meeting. So, our association is going to be having further conversations with our board, our partners, government, and industry.”
But this issue not only affects employees and employers inside the industries. Consumers also have a right to know where their tips are going.
“It is an issue that is impacting everyone from service industry workers to anyone who dines out at a restaurant, or uses any service where they have tipped,” explains Cameron. “So, we see this issue as winnable.”
Courtney Morrison spent many years working in hospitality. She has personally experienced different ways employers syphoned off portions of her tips. As a bartender, she said a common practice was for management to measure inventory at the end of the night and deduct any discrepancies. This meant that any accidental overpours or spills would cost the server.
“Anything that’s missing is what you owe the bar,” said Morrison. “But if a counter is wrong, or if there’s something incorrect with somebody else’s inventory, there’s all sorts of different ways owners can get overhead expenses covered by their staff tips.”
Morrison says you don’t even feel like an employee at times in the industry. But certain standards have become the norm, and workers just get used to the rules.
“We’re sort of treated like individual sales reps,” said Morrison. “And the opportunity to make tips is a gift from your employer. It’s really on you to make more money through your customers.”
“Hospitality workers are used to it. When I first started, I perceived my tips as what I walk out the door with. I never pictured that money as mine until [my shift ended].”
One of the reasons Morrison started this new advocacy group is to try and unite workers that are often divided. Because the issue around tips is so delicate in the service sector, it’s easy for staff to be pitted against one another.
“A lot of the time in hospitality it becomes front-of-house versus back-of-house. I’ve worked at restaurants where the managers are actively telling you all your colleagues are going to try and steal from you. So keep your cards close to your chest. Don’t tell anybody anything.”
Morrison also believes people who have never worked for tips have misconceptions about how much money employees take home. Servers are far from being “gold hoarders” she says.
“You may hear about these beautiful, sexy, evenings where hundreds of dollars are coming into your pocket at the end of the night. Those are so few and far between and you can’t plan your life on them.”
The idea of protecting tips in Nova Scotia is not merely a grassroots movement. It is very much on the pollical radar. Even though the NDP’s bill didn’t pass in 2018, preventing tip theft is still a labour issue the party has in mind.
“It’s still important to us. It’s still an issue that we are advocating with government on, and we bring it up in the legislature when we can…It’s on the forefront of my mind as the labor critic,” said NSNDP member Kendra Coombes.
The labour critic notes that it won’t be hard to define tip protection legally. Other Atlantic Canadian provinces already have legislation on the issue.
“It would look similar to PEI and Newfoundland,” said Coombes. “What they have done is put in tip protection that would ensure that those who are doing the serving… receive the tip and not the employer.”
In an email response, Nova Scotia’s Department of Labour, Skills and Immigration indicated that they are aware of the issue around tip protection.
“The Department is aware of concerns being voiced within certain sectors on tip protection. At this time, we are monitoring other jurisdictions to see how the adoption of rules regarding tips are working.”
Derek Montague is a Huddle reporter in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].