A waitress in an Irish restaurant was left to foot the bill after customers left without paying the bill over the weekend.
RTE Joe Duffy listeners were left disgusted after they heard about the ‘dine and dash’ from a mother who called in to the show to say this had happened to her daughter.
Louise said her daughter ended up working for free yesterday after the group ate a meal and then did a runner and the bill was taken out of her wages.
She said she couldn’t believe the policy as it was “crazy” to have to pay for someone else’s dishonesty.
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“[My daughter] came in yesterday evening and she had worked a few hours and she said that she had to pay for people who left without paying their bill,” Louise told Joe on RTE's Liveline on Monday.
“She ended up almost working for nothing yesterday evening and she was very annoyed - I was furious.
“I thought it just can’t be right that if somebody doesn’t pay their bill that the waiting staff has to cover the cost of it.”
Apparently it is not a once-off. The policy in place at the restaurant is that if a waiter opens a tab and the customer doesn’t pay, the waiting staff are left to cover the cost of the food and drink.
“Normally, most people are honest and they’ll come up and pay or you’ll drop down a bill,” said Louise.
“But she finished up a little bit early… and the customers had left.
“Someone came up to her and said ‘that tab you opened, it’s still open on the till and they’ll be looking for that’ so she paid.
“I asked her, ‘is this the norm?' and she said ‘yes, [a waiter] had paid €90 last week’.”
People at home were shocked at the story and took to social media to voice their thoughts, with one person writing: “Absolutely disgusting behaviour from these restaurants. No wonder hospitality cannot get staff.”
Another slammed the customers for leaving without paying, saying: “Yes, and also disgusting behaviour of those who ate and ran.”
Many questioned the legality of the practice and urged the waitress to call the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
One wrote: “It's a disgrace that employers get away with this. It's exploitation because the majority will be on minimum wage and young.”
While another added: “Fair play to that mother highlighting this scandal”.
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