‘Workers must get full service charge’

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate has approved a bill that will allow employees of hotels and restaurants to get 100 percent of the service charge collected from customers.

Sen. Joel Villanueva, author and sponsor of Senate Bill 1299, said restaurant and hotel workers are currently given only 85 percent of the service charge collected, which they split among themselves.

The balance of 15 percent would go to management to cover for losses or breakages, if any.

Villanueva said that the 85-15 share in the service charge was institutionalized in Presidential Decree 850, which was signed into law in 1975.

He clarified that the collection of service charge is still not mandatory for hotel and restaurant operators “to avoid interference with the right of management to exercise discretion in the operation of their business.”

Citing anecdotal data from reports from hotel and restaurant industry workers, Villanueva lamented that not all of the hotels and restaurants comply with the 85-15 share and in some cases, management receives more than the regular employees.

By making the employees’ share of the service charge 100 percent, Villanueva said there would now be no room for interpretation of this rule.

Villanueva noted that workers in hotels and restaurants mostly earn minimum wage, so whatever they would get from tips and the service charge would go a long way in making ends meet.

Data from the Department of Labor and Employment showed that from 2014 to 2017, around 621 out of 212,641 establishments inspected nationwide violated labor provisions on service charge.

“This proposed measure seeks to address the injustice brought upon our hardworking workers in the service industry who provide the actual service, but rarely get their proper share in collection,” Villanueva said.