STAFF at a well-known restaurant have received a message threatening to call the police or take them “into the basement” if they keep tips from customers reports the Epping Forest Guardian.

A leaked voice note, apparently sent on behalf of the management of the Melin Chigwell, has gone viral on social media drawing widespread criticism and concerns.

In the message, a voice tells staff any money given to them by customers “belongs to the restaurant.”

A man can be heard saying: “You are not paid any tips whatsoever. Nobody has the right to put tips in their pocket, whatsoever.

“I have over 50 CCTV cameras in the building that are visual and voice activated. I can hear everything, and I can see everything. If I see again, yes again, that somebody has put money in their pocket from a customer I will either, one, report it to the police, or two, take them into the basement. Simple as that. You take money from me, I’ll take something from you.”

There is also a Melin restaurant in Harlow on Post Office Road in the town centre.

Later, a press statement from the restaurant explained that the manager’s office was “in the basement”.

In October of last year, the UK government announced that it would take steps to force employers to pass on all tips to workers in full, however a bill has yet to be introduced.

As the law currently stands, employees are only legally entitled to retain a cash tip as they are considered their property rather than their employers’.

Tips paid on credit or debit cards, on the other hand, are deemed their employers’ property.

In a now deleted Instagram post, the official Melin Chigwell page said tips were collected then split among staff.

The post said: “We have been inundated with messages following the leak of an in-house matter, so we just wanted to clarify our company values.

“Firstly, we take pride in Melin’s wage structure, which sees each individual incentivised weekly via tips collected that are then split among staff, so to learn staff were stealing tips from the entire team was extremely disappointing.

The post, which had comments disabled, attracted more than 200 likes before being deleted.

Chigwell Parish councillor Pranav Bhanot took to twitter to express his dismay at the incident.

He wrote: “I have always had a great experience and top service from the staff at Melin restaurant in Chigwell. However, this threatening message to the employees from the employer is upsetting and has put me off going.”

An Essex Police spokesperson said: “We have been contacted by a member of the public after they were concerned by a post they saw on social media which they thought was related to members of the Harlow community .

“No crime has been reported to us.

“Anyone who feels they have been a victim of crime are encouraged to report it to us, so that we can investigate accordingly.

The incident has also been reported in The Sun.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12788305/owner-celebrity-hotspot-restaurant-police-staff-tips/