Lesson 3 - Impose employee discipline

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
At the end of the lesson, the student must be able to:
• Identify penalties as disciplinary actions at restaurants
• Familiarize ways on how to avoid violations of discipline in your restaurant

INTRODUCTION:
This lesson deals with the ways on how to impose employee discipline through
penalties and ways on how to avoid violations

CONTENT:

When a restaurant manager thinks about how to discipline restaurant employees,

introducing fines may seem the simplest way of making an influence. This method is
popular among managers in restaurants and cafes. But let’s be realistic, its
effectiveness is rather doubtful.

If team members know they can just pay for a violation nothing stops them from
keeping on doing what they do instead of changing their bad habits and refusing from
malicious practices. This leads to high staff turnover, which means people come and
go while mistakes and violations happen again and again.

Sometimes restaurant owners miss the moment when the penalty system in their
restaurant becomes ridiculous. An employee may receive only 10% of their earnings
because of the accumulation of penalties.

If you use restaurant POS system that automates your employees' payroll calculation,
look at the stats to analyze how your penalty system works. It may help you to be more
realistic and use fines more carefully.
If you have a penalty system in place, consider what to do with the fines you charge.
Don’t give your employees a reason to tell that you put their money in your pocket.
Think about a transparent system for saving and using the money that you collect as
fines for the common good.

An effective alternative to penalties

There are different types of disciplinary measures at work. A system of punishments

can be a spoke in the wheel of your restaurant operations. Considering that by far not
all damages caused by employees’ mistakes can be compensated, it’s better to find
alternative ways to encourage positive changes.

The good thing is that modern restaurant owners don’t rely on penalties in the first
place. Many try to act the opposite by finding ways to reward their employees when
they do something right rather than punish when they do it wrong. They realize that
it’s better to create a disciplinary system that helps employees work appropriately
and clear out resentments. Analyze your cafe POS system data and select winners
and losers.

How to avoid violations of discipline in your restaurant?

Before introducing different types of disciplinary measures, you should decide on what
exactly you expect from your staff: enthusiasm and discipline or fear and hate. We
doubt that someone strives for the second option. So what to do to stop employees from
breaking the rules?

• Engage staff in the development of the rules. Collect opinions and feedback to
know what would work for your team and what wouldn't.
• Don’t break your own rules. Restaurant staff rules should be the same for all
workers, including managers.
• Create simple and clear rules and regulations for employees in your
restaurant. The shorter, the better. No one wants to delve into documents with lots
of paragraphs and subparagraphs. Try to give the information briefly and clearly.

No matter what type of disciplinary sanction policies you use, the main thing is to react
quickly to the contraventions. If an employee remembers their mistake, chances are
higher they’ll agree that the reprimand is fair. Here is some advice:

• Don’t tell off management in front of the rest of the team. This can affect the
reputation and future relationships between them.
• Justify the reason for the fine or punishment and be specific. Employees
shouldn’t be left guessing what they did wrong.
• Don’t attack an employee’s personality. The problem is actions, not the
employee’s social status, gender, race, or age.
Always talk with employees 1-on-1. You don’t want to humiliate a person in front of
co-workers. Instead, you want to resolve a problem and make sure it’s not going to
happen again. Remember that the main task of disciplinary actions is to improve
employee performance.
 How to prevent your staff from repeating the old same mistakes

Some restaurant owners suggest that if a waiter doesn’t clean a table on time they
should pay a fine and if they do it again they should pay twice as much. Don’t think
that increasing disciplinary fines for a repeated mistake will help. With this
approach, employees may consider penalties to be expenses. Rather than learning
from their mistakes, they’ll just hope nobody notices.
Imagine a waiter forgets that a particular dish is on stop and makes a guest wait for
that dish for half an hour before they realize it won’t be served. Instead of charging a
fine, encourage them to make their best to improve the situation and make the guest
leave your restaurant satisfied despite this incident. Otherwise, they’ll pay the guest’s
bill. It won’t be a piece of cake for a waiter to make someone happy after a long wait,
still, it’s a chance to avoid paying a fine through improving their service.

Employee attendance policy in restaurants

Tardiness is probably the most common problem in any workplace, including

restaurants, cafes, and pubs. In jobs with a flexible schedule or irregular hours, it is
not such a big deal. But employee tardiness isn’t acceptable in the foodservice industry.
It can harm your restaurant’s reputation.

For example, the working day of a regular cook starts at 10 a.m. According to the
restaurant kitchen rules for staff, it means that by this time they should already be in
the kitchen and starting to cook, not just crossing the threshold of the cloakroom.
Schedule the beginning of the working day at least 15-20 minutes earlier than the time
the restaurant opens its doors.

Delays in the restaurant business are very critical. Guests may appear at any time,
and if there is no one to take the order or at least serve a cup of coffee, it may spoil the
guest’s impression about your place. It is very important to talk through all the
specifics, the schedule, and penalties for tardiness, at the job interview, to let the
newcomers know about your restaurant rules for employees.

The Workers Basic Rights - Bureau of Working Conditions

• Equal Work Opportunities for All

The State shall protect labor, promote full employment, provide equal work
opportunity regardless of gender, race, or creed; and regulate employee-employer
relations.

Male and female employees are entitled to equal compensation for work of equal
value and to equal access to promotion and training opportunities. Discrimination
against female employees is unlawful. It is also unlawful for an employer to require a
condition of employment that a woman employee shall not get married, or to stipulate
expressly or tacitly that a woman employee shall be deemed dismissed upon
marriage.

The minimum age of employment is 18 years for hazardous jobs, and 15 years for
non-hazardous jobs. But a child below 15 maybe employed by parents or guardians
in a non-hazardous job if the employment does not interfere with the child's
schooling.

• Work Days and Work Hours

Work Day refers to any day during which an employee is regularly required to
work. Hours of Work refer to all the time an employee renders actual work, or is
required to be on duty or to be at a prescribed workplace. The normal hours of work
in a day is 8 hours. This includes breaks or rest period of less than one hour, but
excludes meal periods, which shall not be less than one hour.

An employee must be paid his or her wages for all hours worked. If all or any part
of his or her regular work hours falls between 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., a covered
employee shall be entitled to a night shift pay in addition to his or her pay for
regular work hours. If he or she works for more than 8 hours in one day, he or she
shall be entitled to overtime pay.

• Weekly Rest Day

A day-off of 24 consecutive hours after 6 days of work should be scheduled by the

employer upon consultation with the workers.

• Wage and Wage-Related Benefits

Wage is the amount paid to an employee in exchange for a task, piece of work, or
service rendered to an employer. This includes overtime, night differential, rest day,
holiday and 13th month pay. It also includes the fair and reasonable value of board,
lodging and other facilities customarily furnished by the employer.

Wage may be fixed for a given period, as when it is computed hourly, daily or
monthly. It may also be fixed for a specified task or result. If wage is for a fixed
period, the minimum wage for a regular 8-hour workday shall not be lower than the
minimum daily wage applicable to the place of work as determined by the Regional
Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board having jurisdiction over workplace.
 If wage is paid by result, the worker shall receive at least the prescribed
minimum wage for 8 hours of work. The amount may be increased or reduced
proportionately if work is rendered for more or less than 8 hours a day.

An employer cannot make any deduction from an employee's wage except for
insurance premiums with the consent of the employee, for union dues, or for
withholding taxes, SSS premiums and other deductions expressly authorized by law.

• Payment of Wages

Wages shall be paid in cash, legal tender at or near the place of work. Payment
may be made through a bank upon written petition of majority of the workers in
establishments with 25 or more employees and within one (1) kilometer radius to a
bank. Payment shall be made directly to the employees.

Wages shall be given not less than once every two (2) weeks or twice within a
month at intervals not exceeding 16 days.

• Employment of Women

Nightwork prohibition unless allowed by the Rules:

• in industrial undertakings from 10PM to 6AM
• in commercial/non-industrial undertakings from 12MN to 6AM
• in agricultural undertakings, at night time unless given not less than 9
consecutive hours of rest
Welfare facilities must be installed at the workplace such as seats, separate toilet
rooms, lavatories, and dressing rooms.

Prohibition against discrimination with respect to pay (i.e. equal pay for work of
equal value), promotion, training opportunities, study and scholarship grants.

• Safe Working Conditions

Employers must provide workers with every kind of on-the-job protection against
injury, sickness or death through safe and healthful working conditions.

Jobs may be hazardous or highly hazardous. Hazardous jobs are those which
expose the employee to dangerous environment elements, including contaminants,
radiation, fire, poisonous substances, biological agents and explosives, or dangerous
processes or equipment including construction, mining, quarrying, blasting,
stevedoring, mechanized farming and operating heavy equipment. If you need further
information on the provisions of the OSH Standards, please click here (OSH
Standards) and LCP, Book IV

• EC Benefits for Work-Related Contingencies

The Employees' Compensation Program is the tax-exempt compensation program

for employees and their dependents created under Presidential Decree No. 626 which
was implemented in March 1975. The benefits include:

• Medical benefits for sickness/injuries

• Disability benefits
• Rehabilitation benefits
• Death and funeral benefits
• Pension benefits

REFERENCE/S:
• CBLM IN FOOD AND BEVERAGE SERVICES NC III