The practice involves hiring servers on the condition that the server will pay a 6% cash premium on all food bills. The owners justify this premium as a sort of tip sharing program. The problem of course is that the server pays the premium whether they receive a tip or not from the customer. The restaurant owner further justifies this practice by explaining to the server that if they do a good job, the patron will give the server a good tip, presumably better than the 6% the owners are charging. They also hire only Japanese and Chinese new immigrants and students with poor English skills, people that generally would not report the owners, and that have difficulty finding jobs that aren't with AWs.
The owners of this particular restaurant themselves speak Cantonese, Mandarin and English fluently. The workers are told up front before being hired about the premium, and told that they will not be hired if they do not agree, and of course will be fired if they tell anyone about it.
Now this practice of 'tip sharing' has to be illegal from at least two perspectives.
The server is in essence paying to work at the restaurant. They have no guarantee of receiving tips and are expected to pay the hosts and bussers a percentage of their tips, as well as the enforced premium. Their wage is set at minimum wage for restaurant staff and a bad shift may effectively result in the server having to make a payback to the employer.
From the Government of B.C. Restaurant Employees Fact Sheet
The only lawful deductions that can be taken from pay cheques are those for Canada Pension Plan, Employment Insurance, Income Tax and any other deductions authorized by the employee in writing to pay on their behalf money to a union, charity, social fund, insurance company (medical, dental, insurance plan) or to meet a credit obligation.
In addition, through this practice of 'tip sharing,' the restaurant owners have also set up a very simple but effective way of under-reporting 6% of their gross revenue. This tip-sharing program is purely on a cash basis, and is done verbally at the end of the shift. The server's total food bill is added up, the 6% is calculated and the server pays this amount on the spot in cash. No record, no report.
I will never eat in this Denman Sushi restaurant again. And although I cannot name the restaurant here, I will be telling everyone I know about this disgusting practice and the name of the restaurant without hesitation.
I will also be filing a complaint against this particular restaurant with the Employment Standards Branch of the Government of British Columbia, and Revenue Canada.
It disgusts me to no end how these restaurateurs can take advantage of these young people simply because they don't understand their rights, the laws of Canada, and have difficulty with the language . May you rot in the hell you've created.
Restaurant Employees Fact Sheet
Employment Standards Act
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