Restaurant chain Zizzi is making waiters foot the bill if customers "dine and dash" or for other financial "mistakes". The money is usually taken out of staff tips. 

"Mistakes" include accidentally undercharging a customer, allowing a table to leave without paying, taking an invalid voucher or gift card as payment or failing to complete a card payment.

Some waiting staff have paid in excess of £100 on errors usually out of the cash tips paid to them by customers, or even "out of their own pocket". (Read more about this in Buzzfeed here). 

This is totally unacceptable. We must not allow this abuse of workers, which we commonly see in the gig economy, to penetrate into the mainstream.

Frances O'Grady, general secretary at the Trades Union Congress, says: "Docking workers' pay isn't normal or acceptable practice. We don't know exactly how many bosses are doing this sort of thing, but even one is too many."

"Zizzi are trying to shift a standard business risk on to the backs of already low-paid workers. If a customer dines and dashes, that’s not the fault of the waiter, and they shouldn’t be forced to pay up."

Please join me in signing this petition to Zizzi's chief executive Steve Holmes demanding an end to this practice. No business leader should be allowed to get away with this.

 
Tom Watson MP

 
Deputy Leader of The Labour Party