Beware of Tronc Masters Bearing Gifts

I work as a Sous Chef.

You might be surprised to hear that my hourly rate of pay is £7.50 an hour, which is exactly the same as a kitchen porter, a waiter or a bar tender in the restaurant I work in. There is no differential at all to recognise the skills I bring to the job or the responsibilities I have.

The reason for this is that all of the staff, regardless of position, have been placed in a Tronc which allocates a monthly share of the 12.5% discretionary Service Charge applied to items on the menu.

We all get a fixed amount each month, regardless of how busy the restaurant is or how much income has been generated. The fixed amount depends on what job you do and not on what contribution you have made to the level of service or the quality of the meal. Customers think the service charge goes to the staff. But it obviously doesn’t and it is clear that the company are probably keeping large amounts for themselves.

I contacted Unite back in April when the National Living Wage increased from £7.20 an hour to £7.50 an hour. At the same time, my fixed monthly share of the service charge went down substantially without any explanation. This happened to my colleagues as well.

With the help of Unite we started asking questions and challenging what had happened.

Two things became clear.

Firstly, that the Tronc was not being run by our employer. They had appointed an external accountancy consultant firm to make decision about how much we would receive from the service charge. Secondly, it was admitted that this company had entered into discussions with my employer when the NLW increased and had agreed as a result of the increase to cut our share of the service charge.

The Union pointed out this was potentially illegal.

After a number of challenges made to the external consultant the original value of the service charge was restored for everyone and any loss of earnings backdated to April.

That’s a good result – but we still have a bitter taste in our mouth and loads of unanswered questions.

For example, where is the money for the consultant’s fee coming from? Is it from service charge? How much is he getting? How is it that he has laid down rules that give him the absolute discretion to decide how much we get? How is it that he agreed to consult with senior managers but not with staff about what happens to our money? How is it that we are on a fixed amount, even in busy periods? Where does the rest of the money go?

On top of this we get the raw end of the deal. Our service charge share can apparently be cut again at any time. Because Tronc is exempt from both employer and employee National Insurance Contributions it means a whole chunk of my income isn’t going to recognised for my pension or other state benefits.

It also means only my minimum hourly rate of £7.50 is the only thing that would be taken into account if I want a bank loan or mortgage, the service charge element would be disregarded as non-contractual. Despite all my training and experience I’ve now been effectively designated as a minimum wage worker because my employer has set up an exploitative business model in collusion with an external consultant.

Unite has told me that this pay model is becoming more common in restaurants and has even started creeping into hotels. It’s another way that employers are denigrating and devaluing our profession as chefs.

Chefs – heed my word – beware of Tronc Masters bearing apparent gifts. They ain’t what they seem. We have to make a stand now, before it gets worse than it already is!