Canadian Chat → Re: [Rant] Math, lacking at Tim Horton's

Maybe in Quebec, but that kind of stuff is not legal in Ontario.

Depends. If the server has full control over their money they can be held accountable for losses.

If they use a common cash register and put their cash into that register they can not be held accountable.

That said, what's legal and what employers actually do are sometimes two different things.

They can't make them pay out of their wages, but tips is a whole other ball game.

To which, as we have discussed in the past, employers who screw around with their employees tips that way deserve to no longer be in business.

There are many ways that walk-outs get handled, some nicer than others. But even those employers who stick their employees with the full brunt of it are not breaking the law. That was my only point.

ALso Illegal.

Spirit of the law and actual law, as you know, are two different things. You technically can't evict someone from a property without cause either, yet N12s and N13s are thrown around like candy for exactly that purpose. It's interesting that you mentioned the tip thing though, because there are a number of US states where even using tips as a method to recover losses from walkouts is entirely illegal.

No, it isn't.

Yes, spirit and letter of the law are two different things, but in Ontario with respect to tips, there is neither.

An NDP backbencher has twice introduced a private members bill to prohibit management from taking a portion of employees tips ("tipping the house"), but I'm not sure that would stop a manager from sticking an employee with walkouts, although it would prohibit one of the ways they do.

A server starts their shift, and they get a float. At the end of the shift, they are expected to hand back enough cash and credit/slips to cover the float plus their sales. Then, depending on the establishment, they'll be expected to pay a percentage of sales to the kitchen, bartender, other servers, etc. Whatever is left after tipout is what they take home as a tip. If they have a walkout, it will take more of their tip money to match what they need to put in.

Some servers I know keep a walkout fund - they tip out a share after each shift that goes to a communal fund that builds to cover walkouts.

Some owners include a tipout to the house to cover breakage and walkouts, and the reputable ones will use it for what it was meant for. Others simply use it to pad their bottom line.

I was talking to a friend the other day and this came, and he told about one place he worked where they tipped the house for a breakage fund, but at the end of the year, any amount above a certain level went towards the staff party.

Anyway, there's lots of variety, and some practices are slimier than others.

But none of them are, to date, illegal in Ontario.

If I've missed something, by all means, would love to see a source.