This is the Zoutmanstreet in The Hague. In this calm street, you may find a small restaurant – it might seem suitable for a cozy meal with friends or family, but looks can be deceiving! Sadly, our appetite rapidly dissipated after we took a look behind the scenes at the personnel policy. Wages were paid out late, wages were sometimes not paid at all, and tips disappeared into the pockets of the proprietor – all of this appears to be the rule rather than the exception. Our fellow worker Willem* experienced this in a rather unpleasant manner.
Upon closer inspection of his paycheck, it turned out that some of Willem’s wages had not yet been paid out. Additionally, he had not been paid his tips, even though there had definitely been tipping customers during his shifts. After several fruitless inquiries as to what was going on, Willem contacted the IWW. He emailed his boss, as per our advice, and he asked his boss to explain why money had mysteriously gone missing from his paycheck. This time, Willem did receive an answer: he was told that he was a bad employee who supposedly made lots of mistakes. The owner had apparently decided that he was no longer entitled to any tips, to compensate for Willem’s mistakes. Furthermore, Willem was immediately removed from the schedule and was thus pretty much fired.
The owner’s claim was noteworthy, particularly because it was only given after the umpteenth request for information about the missing wages. Never before had there been any complaints about the quality of Willem’s work, and withholding wages or tips is not a legal measure against a supposedly lacking worker.
We weren’t going to stand for this. On November 2nd, we sent the owners of this “cozy” restaurant an email with the request to pay Willem, or to at least discuss the situation with us. The fact that we had not yet received a reply did not surprise us in the least. Because of this lack of a response, we went to the Zoutmanstraat in The Hague later that week in order to hand-deliver a letter with a reminder to the proprietor. If this letter had also gone unanswered, we of course wouldn’t have waited long. Next, it was time for action. Never forget:
An injury to one is an injury to all.
*“Willem” is a fictional name, to protect his privacy.