A waitress had to give up a whole day's wages to pay the bill of a table of stumers who left the restaurant without paying. The waitress's mum called in to a radio show to explain what had happened to her daughter.
Speaking to RTE's Joe Duffy, Louise said it was “crazy” her daughter had to pay for someone else’s dishonesty. She 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.”
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, reports the Irish Mirror.
Louise said: “Normally, most people are honest and they’ll come up and pay or you’ll drop down a bill. 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’.”
One listener replied: “Absolutely disgusting behaviour from these restaurants. No wonder hospitality cannot get staff.” Another said: “Disgusting behaviour of those who ate and ran.”
Another added: “It's a disgrace that employers get away with this. It's exploitation because the majority will be on minimum wage and young.”
