The workers group Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) on Saturday criticized the move of some business owners repealing the collection of the service charge that is divided equally among all contractual and rank-and-file employees in the restaurant, hotel, and other service-oriented enterprises.
The management move came after the law on service charge fee collection was amended by Republic Act No. 11360 enacted by President Rodrigo Duterte last month.
Before the amendment, 85 percent of the service charge collected by establishments would be distributed to employees while the 15 percent are collected for management discretion for losses and breakages.
“The repeal of some restaurants, hotels and service-oriented business enterprises of the service charge benefit is not in the intention of the revised service charge law. The revised Service Charge Law of 2019 which was approved by President Duterte last month turns over 100 percent of the service fees to all rank-and-file employees does not mandate or obligates employers and business-owners to discourage them from adopting the scheme or to rescind the practice altogether. This is not the intention of the law,” said ALU-TUCP National Executive Vice President Gerard Seno.
“Rather, the intention of the law is to improve the quality of service of businesses by incentivizing and empowering the best efforts of the employees and improve the workplace working conditions,” he added.
Negatively impacted by the move are service industry workers, including waiters, cooks, dishwashers, bartenders, and customer assistants in restaurants. Other service industry workers affected are those working in gasoline stations, hotels, rest and recreation, and tourism.
The group said the management move clearly breached the country’s numerous judicial jurisprudence on principles of non-diminution of benefits of workers, particularly the non-wage benefits already enjoyed by the workers.
“In behalf of the working people and before the reduction escalates industry-wide, we therefore call on the Department of Labor and Employment to make the corrective measure and make immediate steps to cure this diminution of benefit among rank and file employees,” Seno said.
“We urge the DOLE to issue a supplementary corrective administrative order which cures this reduction of benefit and encourages business owners to retain and adopt the scheme that both improves the brand of service of the business and compensate the service the employees has rendered,” he added.
