The waiter tells a believable, if outrageous story, and the restaurant chain vehemently denies it. What is the truth?
The waiter at the airport restaurant appeared relieved when I finally found him after pacing around to pay the bill last weekend. “I thought you’d done a runner,” he said. What, there are people who do runners in airports, I asked – they can’t get far, surely (I was airside). But he said it happened at least once a day, pointing to a table nearby, where he had just managed to intercept a couple as they were fleeing. Then came a much bigger surprise. “We have to pay their bill when they disappear. Yesterday it cost me £56,” said the waiter, who was from southern Europe.
I was staggered. Does Tesco demand its staff pay when a shoplifter pilfers some razors? Does Boots make its sales assistants cough up for lipsticks snaffled into handbags? Of course not. How can a restaurant demand that its staff pay for the criminal acts of customers? My guess was that the £56 deducted from his pay was probably enough to push him below minimum wage for the day. Meanwhile, the owner of the restaurant chain is almost certainly a millionaire.
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