Service charge: Staff at many restaurants say will seek pay hike, others fear tips may dwindle

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Waiters, chefs and other restaurant workers have expressed their displeasure over the move to bar levying of service charge, with many of them saying they will "seek a pay raise" from owners to offset the loss and others apprehensive that even tips given by patrons out of goodwill "may now dwindle".

Uttarakhand-native Prakash Singh Koranga, 27, a chef who works at an outlet of popular franchise Moti Mahal Deluxe restaurant in south Delhi, said service charge which gets proportionally divided among the staff acts as an "extra income" and "incentive also to give our best at the job".

"I have been in this industry for about five years now. As a chef, I will continue to cook the best meals I can for guests, but the decision has affected our morale, as now we would have to be content with our salary only. Is it possible to survive in this time of inflation with just a salary of Rs 14,000. We will have to follow the new norms, so I will ask for a pay raise from my employer to compensate," he told PTI.

His colleagues in the kitchen and outlet manager Naveen Pandey, who has worked for 18 years for the famous chain, echoed his sentiments. "I may even switch to another place (restaurant) with better prospect, if they don’t hike my salary," said Pandey, a Delhi native.

Amid rising consumer complaints, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) on July 4 barred hotels and restaurants from levying service charge automatically or by default in food bills and allowed customers to file complaints in case of violation.

The decision has drawn mixed response from hoteliers, restaurant owners and associations, across India, some of whom said the move will "not impact" their businesses while others apprehended it may have a bearing on their revenues and may cause dissatisfaction among their staff, who were used to getting their share of service charge every month till now.

Staffs of several big and small restaurants, cafés and hotels, chefs, waiters, kitchen staff constitute the backbone of a restaurant business with a few desk staff or a manager fronting the day-to-day operations.