Glowbal Restaurant Group owner Emad Yacoub told Business in Vancouver April 4 that he plans to sue the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) for making false accusations and singling his business out in an April 2 story on the practice of servers having to pool tips with other staff and pay some back “to the house.”
Yacoub said pooling tips among servers, bus people and others is widespread in the industry.
BC Restaurant Association president and CEO Ian Tostenson agreed with this assertion.
“It is unfortunate that [Glowbal has] been singled out for a policy that is common within the industry,” Tostenson said in a statement.
CBC news director Wayne Williams told Business in Vancouver April 4 that he stands by reporter Kathy Tomlinson’s story.
“Our story would point out that the practice as we laid it out is not industry-wide,” Williams said. “So, we would disagree with how industry-wide it is.”
Yacoub said that nobody who is part of Glowbal’s senior executive team gets any percentage of the tips and no money from the tip pool is used for business expenses.
“Operations and front-house managers, our kitchen and dishwashing teams, hostesses, bussers, food runners and bar staff do share in pooled funds in accordance with our policies,” he said.
