Tourism and hospitality staff are being exploited and mistreated, according to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
It will also tell an Oireachtas committee today the sector is characterised by low wages and breaches of company law.
The union will highlight these issues during a discussion on skills shortages.
Fiona Dunne, from the ICTU, says there are many problems with working conditions; “There’s a number of breaches of legislation so for instance non-issuing of payslips, issues around rostering, around knowing the hours that they work from week to week, there’s a lot of that, issues around tipping they don’t always get the tips that customers are leaving for them and then the sector itself is very low paid”.
Meanwhile, new legislation will ban bars and restaurants from using the term ‘service charge’ unless the money is going directly to employees.
As part of legislation to make tips more transparent, any mandatory service charge will have to go to staff.
It must be stated clearly where any extra charges are going if the money isn’t being treated as a tip.
Enterprise Minister Leo Varadkar has said it’s not acceptable that people are being asked to pay with no idea where the money is going.
