By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

THE concept of 15 per cent gratuity automatically being paid to some workers needs to be “reassessed,” said Trade Union Congress President Obie Ferguson.

He suggested that a guaranteed 15 per cent tip on every bill might have negatively affected workers’ incentive to provide exemplary service.

Mr Ferguson made the comments while appearing on the KISS FM radio talk show “Ed Fields Live” with host Ed Fields on Monday.

Stressing that a “new sort of thinking” is required on the matter, Mr Ferguson agreed with suggestions from the show’s host that an automatic 15 per cent gratuity, which was originally a discretionary tip given by a customer to reflect and reward the quality of service rendered, does little to push employees to perform to their highest capabilities.

Mr Ferguson also said the issue creates a problem from a legal standpoint, arguing that the client or customer should not have to be automatically charged an extra 15 per cent, especially if the service given was subpar.

For reference, Baha Mar and the Meliá Nassau Beach Resort recently secured a legal victory when Supreme Court Justice Roy Jones ruled that the hotel was not obligated to pay staff a 15 per cent gratuity for serving all-inclusive guests – something he said would amount to “a gratuitous giveaway.”

Referring to the Meliá situation, Mr Fields, who is also senior vice-president of public affairs and retail services at the Atlantis resort, put to Mr Ferguson that the 15 per cent gratuity previously enjoyed by Meliá employees is an example of the opposite of being rewarded by virtue of one’s performance.

Mr Fields suggested to Mr Ferguson that as opposed to initially serving as a fundamental necessity for an individual that makes a paltry base salary, the “pendulum has swung” and now the 15 per cent gratuity has become an “unfair charge if someone isn’t delivering service.”

Mr Ferguson concurred by saying: “This whole question of the 15 per cent issue, we have to reassess the situation and we have to look at it for what it’s worth. We may have to restructure things. But things cannot remain, in my humble opinion, the same because the whole world is changing, and we have to adjust accordingly. And it does require a new sort of thinking. It just is not the same.”

Mr Ferguson added: “It does create a problem, even from a legal standpoint, because where unions sign agreements for 15 per cent, that’s an agreement between the union and the employer, not the client, because it’s a third party. If you come to my restaurant to eat and you are not happy with the service, why should you be required (to pay)?”

Mr Ferguson also agreed with Mr Field’s suggestions that the 15 per cent gratuity has “constricted” people and has stifled them from achieving their true potential, specifically the potential for workers to exercise versatility on the job. “Let’s be real,” Mr Ferguson said. “If you look at the hotel industry, I take a strong view that you can have a guy who is a maître d’, a guy you can train to be a restaurant manager, you can train him to be a food and beverage controller, and the more skills he has within that organization, he is more flexible, he can earn money, even in the case of filling (in) for another worker who may have to go on vacation or who got sick.

“But the point I’m making is, consistent to the point (you’re) suggesting, cross training, retraining, re-engineering things to meet the current position in this country to me is absolutely essential.”