Redistribution of Gratuities - Act Part 3, Section 30.4
Last updated on January 22, 2020Contents:
Summary
Text of Legislation
Policy Interpretation
Related Information
Summary
This section sets out how an employer can redistribute tips in a tip pool. Employers may not share in tips unless they do similar work to the employees who receive the tips.
Text of Legislation
Gratuities
Redistribution of gratuities
30.4 (1) Despite section 30.3 (1), an employer may withhold gratuities from an employee, make a deduction from an employee's gratuities or require the employee to return or give the employee's gratuities to the employer if the employer collects and redistributes gratuities among some or all of the employer's employees.
(2) An employer must not redistribute gratuities under subsection (1) among prescribed employees or classes of employees.
(3) Subject to subsections (4) and (5), an employer or a director or shareholder of an employer may not share in gratuities redistributed under subsection (1).
(4) An employer who is a sole proprietor or a partner in a partnership may share in gratuities redistributed under subsection (1) if the employer regularly performs to a substantial degree the same work performed by
(a) some or all of the employees who share in the redistribution, or
(b) employees of other employers in the same industry who commonly receive or share in gratuities.
(5) A director or shareholder of an employer may share in gratuities redistributed under subsection (1) if the director or shareholder performs to a substantial degree the same work performed by
(a) some or all of the employees who share in the redistribution, or
(b) employees of other employers in the same industry who commonly receive or share in gratuities.
Employees covered by a collective agreement
Section 3 provides that parties to a collective agreement may not negotiate terms and conditions that do not meet or exceed the standards set out in section 30.4. Where there is a collective agreement, the enforcement of matters relating to section 30.4 is through the grievance procedure, not through the enforcement provisions of the Act.
Policy Interpretation
Subsection (1)
Employers can require employees to pool their tips and share them with certain other employees.
Subsection (2)
An employer may not withhold tips or require employees to pool their tips in order to redistribute them to certain classes of employees.
Subsection (3) and (5)
A director or shareholder of a corporate employer is not allowed to share tips unless they do the same type of work as the employees who are given tips, or the same type of work as the employees who share in the tip pool.
Subsection (4)
An individual employer (a proprietor or a partner in a business) is allowed to share tips if they regularly do the same type of work as the employees who are given tips do, or if they regularly do the same type of work as the employees who share in the tip pool do.
Example
An employer requires all employees who receive tips to put 15% of tips received into a pool. The pool is disbursed to all employees who do not receive tips at the end of each shift according to a formula agreed to by the employees. This activity does not contravene the Act.
Example
An employer requires all tips paid through credit or debit cards to be put in a tip pool. At the end of each month, after paying for dine-and-dash meals, and for spillage and breakage, the employer distributes the residual to all employees. This activity is a contravention of the Act.
Related Information
Related sections of the Act or Regulation
ESA