Côte Restaurant Service Charge Revealed To Go Straight To Company Instead Of Staff Tips

A Côte restaurant in London/Ewan Munro

The Côte restaurant chain has been handing its service charge money straight to the company rather than to its staff as tips, it has been revealed.

The chain, which has 72 restaurants in the UK and 30 in London, automatically adds a 12.5 per cent service charge to bills.

But the cash is not kept by workers at the restaurant where the diner ate.

Even more shockingly, servers claim they are told to tell customers that the service charge is divvied up between them.

One staff member told the Evening Standard: “We are told by management that we don’t get to keep the service charge because we get paid more than the minimum wage, so we should be grateful, but most of us would prefer earning the minimum wage and taking home our tips for the hard work we do.”

Côte claim the practice allows them to pay restaurant staff an hourly rate above the minimum wage of £6.50. But their £7.50 or £8 wage is still below the London Living Wage of £9.15 per hour.

The staff member also disputed claims by Côte that staff could keep any extra cash tips left on top of the service charge. They said: “One night I was waiting a large group and had to split the bill for each guest. At the end they left a £100 cash tip, but I was forced to hand it over to my manager and never saw that money again.”

MP Iain Wright, who is chairman of the Business Select Committee, told the newspaper he was “outraged” at the practice and accused the firm of “lying” to their customers.

“When you go into a restaurant you have a direct relationship with that waiter and you want to reward them for looking after you,” he said. “I’m particularly outraged that the firm would tell staff to essentially lie to customers. If I say to someone serving me in a restaurant, ‘do you get the service charge’ I expect it to go 100% to them as a tip for great service.

“For Côte to say it’s going to the bottom line rather than in people’s pockets is unacceptable.There’s a principle of making sure the tips that you give over and above the bill of the restaurant is given to the staff. It’s hugely important and should be given 100% to the staff to show your thanks.”

A spokesperson for Côte, whose profits soared to £16.3 million last year, said: “At Côte the optional service charge is used to increase the pay of all restaurant level staff above what would typically be seen as market standard. Whereas the base salary for a waitress in the industry would typically be minimum wage, currently £6.50 per hour, we are able to pay more like £7.50-8.00 per hour through using the service charge.

“This applies to all restaurant level staff, as good service is a team effort from the person serving the food to the person cooking the food or cleaning the kitchen.”

This is not the only recent controversy to hit restaurant chains, with campaigners calling on eateries including Pizza Express, Strada, Zizzi and Ask Italian to stop charging staff an eight to ten percent administration fee to process tips left on credit and debit cards.