EMPLOYMENT LAW

The statutory scheme established by the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 specifically defines what “remuneration” means by reference to the question whether or not money payments paid to workers are paid by the employer. That question calls for a precise legal analysis of the payment. The question is determined by the answer to the question “who owned the money which was paid to the employees at the point they were paid”?

It followed that, where restaurant or bar service charges are paid by the customer to the employer, but are then paid into a “troncmaster’s” bank account for distribution by him in accordance with a “tronc scheme” agreed between the troncmaster and employees, the sums so distributed to employees are not “paid by the employer” for the purposes of being included in  the national minimum wage calculation.