A waitress has been forced to foot the bill after a group left a restaurant without paying.
Listeners to the Liveline show on RTE Radio in Ireland were left disgusted after a mum named Louise told the host about a ‘dine and dash’ incident which had left her daughter short at the weekend, reports the Irish Mirror.
The "furious" mother said her daughter ended up nearly working for free after the group ate a meal before doing a runner, with the managers then deciding to take the bill 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.
Sharing the story with host Joe Duffy, Louise said: “[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”
“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.”
This financial penalty however is not thought to be a one-off, with it following a reported policy at the restaurant to charge waiting staff for the cost of the food and drink if a waiter opens a tab and the customer doesn’t pay,
Louise said her daughter had discovered the customers had left after "finishing up early" when a colleague came up to her and said "that tab you opened, it’s still open on the till and they’ll be looking for that’
“I asked her, ‘is this the norm?' and she said ‘yes, [a waiter] had paid €90 last week’.”
People 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), an Irish state body which fulfils a role similar to employment tribunals in the UK.
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.”
