Casual Dining Group axes admin charge on staff tips

The company, which acquired both Las Iguanas and La Tasca over the last month for a combined sum of c£105m, said the changes were ‘designed to address the differing policies currently in place across the group’.

CDG chief executive Steve Richards said: “In the past few weeks we have acquired two restaurant companies which have individual approaches to customer tips, and by the end of November there will be no administration fees charged for the purposes of processing tips."

It marks a turnaround from the group's position in August,​ when a company spokesperson told BigHospitality it had no plans to remove the fee despite growing pressure from the Unite union.

CDG claims its original tipping policy was developed in consultation with staff and that despite offering regular opportunities for feedback ‘at no stage’ had employees complained about the additional charges.

In the past week both Pizza Express and Azzurri – which owns ASK Italian and Zizzi – have scrapped their 8 per cent fee on staff tips.

Unite said that while it welcomed the move it would ‘continue to monitor how the new policy is implemented to make sure that it is both fair and transparent’. 

Last month the Government launched an investigation​ in to what it called an ‘abuse of tipping’ within the restaurant sector.

Business secretary Sajid Javid said the evidence would be used to consider whether there should be a cap on the proportion of tips restaurants can withhold from staff for administrative costs.

The consultation will run until 10 November.