Your tips if you’re an agency worker

If you’re placed by an agency and work shifts at a hospitality venue, tips rules still apply to you. The Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 covers workers, not just employees on a direct contract, and that includes agency staff.

Who’s responsible for what

The venue you’re placed at, not your agency, is responsible for allocating tips fairly. That’s true even though your contract of employment sits with the agency, not the venue. The venue has to apply the same fairness and transparency rules it would for its own staff. It also has to pass your share of the tips on to your agency.

From there, it’s your agency’s job to get that money to you, in full, with no unauthorised deductions. If your agency is holding back part of what the venue sent over, that’s a separate problem from anything the venue did.

If something’s gone wrong

Worth working out which link in the chain the problem is actually in before you raise it. If the venue never allocated you a fair share in the first place, that’s the venue’s failure. If a fair amount was sent but never reached you, that’s more likely your agency.

The time limitThe deadline by which you must submit a claim to an employment tribunal. For most claims the limit is three months less one day from the act you are complaining about, and it is strictly enforced. Mis... is different depending on which failure you’re complaining about. If your agency hasn’t passed on the full amount the venue sent over on your behalf, you have 12 months from the failure to bring a tribunal claim, longer than the standard tips time limit. If the venue itself never had a proper written policy or tipping record in place, that’s a 3 months less a day claim, the same as any other tips complaint.

Either way, the tribunal route covered in what to do if your employer keeps your tips or pays them late applies to whichever party is responsible, just watch which clock is running.