Section 27W — Employment Rights Act 1996: Restrictions on contracting out of this Part

Restrictions on contracting out of this Part 27W 1 A prohibited reimbursement provision in an agreement between an employer and a worker (whether in a contract of employment or not) is void.

2 A provision in an agreement is a “reimbursement provision” if it purports—

a to require the worker to make a payment to the employer, or b to reduce any part of the wages payable to the worker by the employer.

3 A reimbursement provision is “prohibited” if there is a relationship between—

a the payment or reduction, or the amount of the payment or reduction, under the reimbursement provision, and b either—

i the worker being allocated qualifying tips, gratuities and service charges, or ii the worker receiving worker-received tips that are not qualifying tips, gratuities and service charges.

4 The circumstances in which there is a relationship of the kind mentioned in subsection (3) include circumstances where—

a the possibility of the worker being allocated qualifying tips, gratuities and service charges, b the amount of qualifying tips, gratuities and service charges to be allocated to the worker, c the possibility of the worker receiving worker-received tips that are not qualifying tips, gratuities and service charges, or d the amount of worker-received tips that are not qualifying tips, gratuities and service charges to be received by the worker, is wholly or partly dependent on the reimbursement provision having been agreed.

5 This section is without prejudice to section 203 (restrictions on contracting out).