Waiters are refusing to cooperate with a controversial tipping policy at five Miller & Carter steakhouses including two in Cardiff. More than 8,000 people have signed a petition calling for the business to change a policy which is alleged to be in place at branches including Cardiff Bay, Cardiff city centre, and Killay in Swansea.

Since late August waiters in those three restaurants have allegedly been paying out of their tips to match 1.5% of the gross sales figure from their tables. That amount allegedly comes out of their tips and goes to kitchen, bar, and management staff. Waiters at some other branches are said to be 'tipping out' as much as 2% of the gross table sales figure. One whistleblower said some waiters have been reduced to tears due to worries they will go into 'tip debt' if they do not make enough tips to cover the percentage. And now some waiters have said they will no longer cooperate with the new system – including, we understand, at the Cardiff city centre and Cardiff Bay branches.

Unite the Union said in a social media post on Thursday: "From 5pm today over 100 unionised waiters at five different Miller & Carter restaurants will be taking action on fair tips by reverting back to the tip-out system which saw kitchen & bar get a proportionate amount. No more % sales. No more management involvement."

READ NEXT: Police officers 'watched football match' while driving with siren

DON'T MISS: Property developer funded luxury BMW and £250k watch with double life

In a letter to Miller & Carter staff said they would be returning to a system based on "a percentage of card tips and/or cash, or a fixed amount per night". Whistleblowers have told WalesOnline that waiters at the Cardiff city centre steakhouse will go back to sharing 15% of their tips while those at Cardiff Bay will tip out up to £10 per shift. A Miller & Carter spokeswoman said: "We are aware that in five out of our 124 restaurants this year the teams have not been able to agree the best tip sharing solution for their restaurant. We are currently trying to help the teams at these sites find a resolution that works for everyone and if we are made aware of any practices that don’t follow what has been agreed by the team, we will investigate further."

Unite has accused Miller & Carter of asking waiters to attend meetings to discuss the tipping system before grievances over the policy had been heard. One Cardiff waiter said staff had refused to attend the meetings, adding: "I know we're doing the right thing. It's not that we don't want to tip out but it needs to be fair for both sides."

Waiters say simply sharing tips would be fairer than having to match a gross sales percentage. WalesOnline has seen a manager's message to staff at Killay's Miller & Carter, which reads: "In the unlikely event that a server's gratuities do not cover their tip-out then an IOU will be in place until the following week – this will continue until the full tip amount has been collected."

If a waiter gets into 'tip debt' the amount owed would be taken from their tips across future shifts but Miller & Carter insists it would never come out of their wages. The chain says the team in each of its branches "democratically decides on its own tip distribution policy" through a vote. But the Cardiff whistleblower claimed that all the options for their branch's vote in August included a percentage of gross table sales. He said back-of-house staff outnumbered the front-of-house team, which allegedly led to the highest sales percentage among the options, 1.5%, being selected. Miller & Carter has said some of its restaurants in Wales will be "re-running the voting process" following complaints.

In the Unite petition, titled "Give us back our tips", organiser Bryan Simpson wrote: "Previously waiters had to 'tip-out' to the kitchen and bar around 20-25% of their tips. Now they have to find [up to] 2% of *gross sales* which is a huge increase and means that some are already going into tip debt.... They cannot possibly sustain the levels of tips they are expected to collect to subsidise the poor wages of the kitchen and bar team."

Around 80% of the Hayes and Cardiff Bay front-of-house teams are alleged to have put their names to a grievance. One whistleblower said earlier this month: "If we don't reach an agreement we probably will strike... The policy is very stressful because every time someone makes an order you are thinking: 'How much is that going to cost me?' Before we did everything to upsell but with this policy we are scared."

The Unite petition calls on the CEO of the chain's owner Mitchells & Butlers, Phil Urban, to implement a "genuinely democratic Fair Tips Committee to be elected at every restaurant without management interference". Mitchells & Butlers announced an operating profit of £99m in its 2023 half-year results.

A spokeswoman for Miller & Carter said: “We are more than happy to be transparent about our approach which we believe is democratic, fair and ensures 100% of all tips given by guests are retained by frontline team members. Tips received by our team members are in addition to our core pay and benefits package which is always paid at, or above, national minimum wage. There has been no change to the approach that has been taken for years in that it is team members who democratically agree each year how tips should be distributed at Miller & Carter. To suggest otherwise is fundamentally untrue.

"There are currently 124 Miller & Carter venues across the UK. Each team, at each individual site, democratically decides on that team’s own tipping distribution policy. At this time, there are more than 70 variations across the estate as to how tips are distributed. No tipping policy in any venue should ever result in team members having to contribute from their own pocket.

"General managers are not involved in the vote and/or final decisions and do not receive the benefits of tips. Every other member of staff is encouraged to participate in the process of how tips will be allocated amongst the team to ensure fairness for all. Team members have not, and will never be, asked to contribute towards tips from their own remuneration and contrary to some claims, team members never have their wages reduced in lieu of the tips they have received and will never be asked to make up any perceived shortfall in tips that are to be distributed to other team members."