(Labor Standards – Tips)
Facts: Under the POEA approved contract of employment, private respondent, who works as a bartender on board the vessel MV Orient Express, shall receive a monthly basic salary of US S450.00, flat rate, including overtime pay for 12 hours of work daily plus tips of US S2.00 per passenger per day. He was also entitled to 2.5 days of vacation leave with pay each month.
Private respondent filed a complaint before the labor arbiter for vacation leave pay and unpaid tips amounting to US S36,000.00. The Labor Arbiter ordered the recruitment agency and the principal to pay jointly and severally private respondent his vacation leave pay. The claim for tips was dismissed for lack of merit.
On appeal, NLRC ordered the payment of unpaid tips.
Issue: WON employers are liable to pay tips.
Held: No. Payment for overtime was included in the monthly salary, the supposed tips mentioned in the contract should be deemed included thereat. It is presumed that the parties were aware of the plain, ordinary and common meaning of the word “tip”. A bartender cannot feign ignorance on the practice of tipping and that tips are normally paid by customers and not by the employer.
It has been said that a tip denotes a voluntary act, but whether considered from the standpoint of the giver or the recipient, a tip lacked the essential element of a gift, namely, the free bestowing of a gratuity without a consideration, and that despite its apparent voluntariness, there is an element of compulsion in tipping.
CASE EATER 