Tips: Union warns NI workers could be short changed

People in Northern Ireland could be "left behind" after the government committed to new laws to ensure workers get all their tips, a union has warned.

In the Queen's Speech, the government vowed to deliver on plans to make sure that restaurant waiting staff receive 100% of their tips.

It followed an outcry that some major restaurant chains were keeping as much as 10% of tips paid by card.

However, Unite the Union warned that the legislation would not extend to NI.

The speech said the government would "take steps to make work fairer, introducing measures that will support those working hard".

The Employment (Allocation of Tips) Bill outlines how restaurants will be forced to hand over tips to staff and share pooled tips fairly, and a new code of practice will be introduced.

The plan was first published under Theresa May.

Unite Regional Organiser for Hospitality, Neil Moore said he believed there were "justifiable suspicions" that it was "little more than a cynical exercise in electioneering".

However, he added that the bill was "at least recognition by them (the government) that the situation is not sustainable".

• What was in the Queen's Speech?

• Restaurants face ban on taking tips

• What are the UK's rules on tipping?

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'End the theft of tips'

"The reality is that since this is a devolved issue - this legislation would not extend to Northern Ireland," he said.

"Last Sunday marked the 1,000th day without any functioning government here - it appears unlikely that hospitality workers can expect any help from local politicians in the near future."

The Queen's speech outlined the government's agenda for the coming parliamentary session, with 26 bills - pieces of proposed legislation - spanning health, education, defence, technology, transport and crime, as well as Brexit.