Hospitality staff 'could lose up to £15m in tips' due to rail strikes

Hospitality workers could lose as much as £15m in tips due to the December train strikes, according to data from cashless tipping platform Tipjar

Average tips takings on strike days in October and November were 17% down, according to the report.

Tipjar works with brands such as Papa Johns, Honest Burgers, BrewDog, Paragon Pubs and Marugame Udon and collects and distributes over £1m in monthly tips.

James Brown, co-founder of Tipjar and managing director of BrewDog, said: “Arguably the busiest week of the year for the industry, and the first year since Covid with no restrictions – this industrial action could be devastating for those businesses (and their staff) who are hanging on a financial thread.”

Ben Thomas, chief executive and co-founder of Tipjar, added: “The impact that that extra £35/£40 [in tips] has on those that are more vulnerable in our industry is huge. It could be the difference in someone being able to feed their families, or giving their kids presents at Christmas.

"Whilst we align with workers speaking to improve pay and conditions, our job is to represent some of the lowest-paid workers whose income is directly related to footfall in their pubs and restaurants.”

It comes after the announcement of an additional round of rail strikes between Christmas Eve and 27 December from the RMT.

Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, said: “These further rail strikes will be hugely damaging for hospitality businesses, their workers and their customers as it seems almost guaranteed that we will be facing a heavily disrupted Christmas for the third year in a row.

“Our estimate of the cost of these strikes already stood at £1.5 billion in lost sales and it’s incredibly frustrating that a solution has yet to be reached to avoid this disruption during the golden month of trade for our sector.”