Mayfair casino facing legal action after former waiter says he did not get fair share of tips

The worker has also claimed that management appeared to receive a larger share of the service charge despite not serving customers. Photograph: Chris Lawrence/Alamy View image in fullscreen The worker has also claimed that management appeared to receive a larger share of the service charge despite not serving customers. Photograph: Chris Lawrence/Alamy Mayfair casino facing legal action after former waiter says he did not get fair share of tips Former worker at Metropolitan on Park Lane in London says he had to share tips with managers and other staff A Mayfair casino is facing legal action from a former waiter who says he was not given a fair share of tips. The former worker at the Metropolitan Mayfair – part of the Metropolitan Casinos group owned by the US investment firm Silver Point Capital, which operates seven casinos in the UK and four in Egypt – has filed a complaint with the employment tribunal in London over his share of cash tips given directly to him, which he says he was forced to share with managers and other staff. He has also raised concerns about the distribution of the service charge, claiming that management, including senior management, “appeared to receive a larger share despite not being directly involved in serving customers or working on the frontline”. The waiter, who said he had been asked to leave after five years at Metropolitan Casinos, said the company had “refused to provide any details” of how it shared out the service charge so he could not tell if it “complied with the principles of fairness and transparency”. The casino adds an optional 12.5% service charge on food and drinks ordered in its restaurants and bar. Under legislation implemented in October 2024, employers in Britain must share out 100% of service charges and card tips collected in a venue to workers there. It must be done in a “fair and transparent manner” and employees have the right to know “how tips are allocated and distributed”. The former member of staff bringing the tribunal case and another former worker told the Guardian that the way tips and service charge were shared out was very opaque, and they had no knowledge of how – or if – tips paid on cards were shared with staff. Payslips do not lay out how the share of service charge has been calculated and do not mention card tips. Managers take an equal share of cash tips, which waiters say is unfair. The tips and service charge amount to thousands of pounds a day and make up a considerable proportion of earnings for frontline staff. Draft guidance on implementing the tips legislation, issued by the government last week, decreed companies must consult workers on tipping policy, “ideally achieving broad agreement in the workplace that the system of allocation and distribution of tips is fair, reasonable and clear”. The Unite union, which represents thousands of hospitality workers, said the draft should be withdrawn and rethought, as it enabled employers to ignore workers’ concerns as long as t