A day after the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) barred hotels and restaurants from levying service charge, the waiters, chefs and other restaurant workers have expressed their displeasure over the move to bar levying of service charge.
Many of them said that they will seek a pay raise from owners to offset the loss and others apprehensive that even tips given by patrons out of goodwill may now dwindle. "I may even switch to another place (restaurant) with better prospect, if they don't hike my salary," said Pandey, a Delhi native.
The decision by CCPA has drawn mixed response from hoteliers, restaurant owners and associations, across India, some of whom said the move will "not impact" their businesses while others apprehended it may have a bearing on their revenues and may cause dissatisfaction among their staff, who were used to getting their share of service charge every month till now.Chefs, waiters, kitchen staff constitute the backbone of a restaurant business with a few desk staff or a manager fronting the day-to-day operations.
Staffs of several big and small restaurants, cafes and hotels said that they would have to accept the new norms willy-nilly, but many were categorical that they won't settle with their existing salary.
In central Delhi's Connaught Place, a number of big restaurants and posh cafes are located. In south Delhi, a staffer at Green Sky Cafe which serves Korean cuisine with BTS boy band music in the background, said, "we don't charge service tax, so the decision won't impact us."
"I do the dishes. I have been working in this restaurant for the last 25 years. My salary is very less to feed a family of five in a city like Delhi. We used to get a little respite from the service charge. I used to get my share of Rs 1,800-2,000 per month as service charge. The money helped me to pay for small expenses like bus pass. This will hit our lives. What is our fault,” asked Rajesh (49), an employee at a restaurant in Connaught Place.