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Las Iguanas changes tipping policy
Bristol-founded Latin American restaurant chain Las Iguanas has changed its tipping policy after coming under fire for a policy meant employees were “paying to work”.
The 41-strong chain, whose first restaurant opened off St Nicholas’ Street in 1991, had operated a policy that required its waiters to give up three per cent (or over four per cent, for those working in London) from all total sales, to be divided up into tips.
The money was supposed to come out of the waiter’s tips from their tables, but if the tips were low it meant that waiters could effectively be “paying to work”
Having been exposed by a series of articles from The Observer, an online petition was set up by 38 Degrees, calling on the restaurant to change its tipping policy. The petition has reached 90,000 signatures to date.
Last week the restaurant responded and issued a statement on its website claiming “100 per cent of tips will be distributed in full among hourly-paid staff at our restaurants.”
Managing director Mos Shamel commented: “We are pleased to do this in response to the wishes of our teams – the people who work at Las Iguanas and make it great.”