Rejected petition PETITION AGAINST UNFAIR HOSPITALITY SERVICE CHARGE PRACTICES

We, the undersigned employees, customers, and members of the public, respectfully submit this petition to raise urgent concerns regarding the unfair and non-transparent.

Across the industry, many hospitality businesses apply a mandatory service charge to customer bills.

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We respectfully request that the Government:
1. Introduce or enforce legislation requiring 100% of service charges to be given to staff, with no hidden deductions.
2. Mandate full transparency.
3. Prohibit employers from retaining any portion of service charges, unless explicitly approved by law.
4. Introduce penalties for businesses that misuse or misrepresent service charges.
5. Require hospitality venues to clearly inform customers how service charges are handled.

This petition was rejected

Why was this petition rejected?

We can't publish petitions when the request is something that's already happening or something that has been announced since you started your petition.

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We cannot accept this petition as it calls for something which is already in place.

The Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act was enacted in 2023, and sets out a legal obligation on employers across sectors to allocate all tips, gratuities and service charges which they are paid or which they exercise control or significant influence over ("qualifying tips") to workers without any deductions. The Act also requires employers to ensure that the distribution of qualifying tips between workers is fair, and provides a route for the worker to complain if the employer is not following the law.

You can find the full legal text here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/13/enacted
And the explanatory notes to the Act here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/13/notes/division/1/index.htm

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.

Date submitted 24 November 2025
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