Mario Dolcezza, states that in his opinion tips should be abolished and proper wages paid to these hard working front line staff.
Speaking from recent experience at the Prestigues C House, where all tips are pooled and shared out once yearly to all staff including none waiting staff, I agree lets stop subsidising wages with tips and lets start paying all front line hospitality staff properly and afford them the dignity they so richly deserve. Waiting staff should be paid well, lets face it they put with all unsundry with the same welcoming arms and cheery smile, that in itself is worth its weight in gold..
I agree with the fact that waiting staff should have higher basic salaries. I agree with scrapping service charge, as in my opinion it's just an unfair charge that most of the times is retained by the employer rather than being passed on to the employees. (in the last hotel I was working for, the Hotel would retain 75% of the service charge!!).
I don't agree with abolishing tips. Sure tips should not be used to subsidise waiting staff's salaries, but they are a good tool to push staff to go the extra mile and in some cases to reward those individuals that provide a better service to guests.