A group of casual banqueting staff at the Jurys Hotel Group are taking High Court action over a service charge payment system which they claim is inequitable.
The High Court, sitting in Dundalk, heard yesterday that permanent workers were automatically paid part of the service charge for Jurys Cabaret even though they did not work during the function or only spent a fraction of the time preparing the venue.
Former employee Vincent Tynan told the court he began working for Jurys in 1984. As a casual worker, he would only work when the hotel called him in. Tips were paid "very infrequently" and nine times out of 10, the casual staff would only get a 2.5 per cent service charge compared with the actual charge of 12 per cent.
Jurys Cabaret ran from May to September six nights a week and the hotel would pick 18 staff for the duration. In the event of illness or time off, casual members would fill in.
Two head waiters and a porter were on duty every night and they got two service charge points each, while the 18 women got just one service point.
Mr Tynan said he believed every waiter and porter was given a "point of service charge" even if they did not work at the function.
All the permanent staff were paid "for every function, every day of every week of every year". The porter who got the room ready in a hour got the same as a waiter who had to work five hours.
Mr Tynan first raised the issue about two years into his job but he was told the hotel had the permission of the union to do so.
He raised the issue at shop steward and branch level of the ITGWU and with the hotel management but the company told him the service charge scheme had been agreed by the union on behalf of its members there.
The case continues.