Molson Indy beer gardens workers not paid an hourly wage (from 1996)
Here's a 1996 article I wrote about employment standards in British Columbia
Servers at seven Molson Indy beer gardens weren’t paid hourly wages and worked only for tips, according to a bartender inside one of the tents. The Elephant and Castle restaurant chain, which generated revenues of $35 million last year, won a contract from Grand Prix Management Inc. to manage seven beer-garden tents. Garlen Daum, who poured beer at the event, told the Straight that Elephant and Castle vice-president Peter Barnett announced at a pre-race meeting that the servers wouldn’t be paid a wage and would have to remit 15 percent of their tips to the bar.
When contacted by the Straight, Barnett said the servers were contractors, not employees, and it was “possible” that some weren’t paid an hourly wage. He added that the “contractors” purchased the beer and resold it at the table. “I had a couple of girls who were telling me they made over $250 a day,” Barnett said. “I would say they did extremely well.”
Daum replied that signs outside the beer gardens listed the price of beer at $4.50, and the servers couldn’t resell it at a higher price. He estimated that about 50 servers worked in the various beer gardens over the Labour Day weekend, adding that they were required to wear Elephant and Castle shirts and clean up tables at the end of the day. He said the pourers were paid $9 an hour.
B.C. Federation of Labour president Ken Georgetti said it was illegal not to pay minimum wage to the servers, adding that it was a “pretty shoddy way to treat people”. Barnett said that the beer gardens are “a very good, positive, back-to-school, end-of-the-summer program”.
“We’ve employed a number of handicapped people,” Barnett said.
Paul Cullinane, regional director of the B.C. employment-standards branch, told the Straight that someone from his office will be contacting the Elephant and Castle. “Generally, where someone is an employee, they have to be paid at least minimum wage—currently, it’s $7 an hour,” he said. “Tips or gratuities are not considered wages under the act, so you can’t offset what you should be paying in wages based on the fact that the person gets gratuities.”
In addition, he said, employers aren’t allowed to deduct cash shortages or the cost of broken bottles or glass from a worker’s tips. Cullinane added that certain conditions must be met before an employer can exempt people from the minimum wage by calling them contractors. “Normally, a contractor supplies their own tools, they bid, they’re free to do other work, and they may be running jobs in various locations,” he said.
Barnett said that the beer-gardens servers were predominantly staff from various nightclubs, bars, and hotels. “Some of them picked up extra shifts afterwards for the voluntary parties, voluntary functions,” he said. “We provide the personnel.”