ERA 2025: Employer Obligations on Tips and Tronc

The Employment Rights Act 2025 includes provisions on tips and tronc that affect hospitality, retail, and any business where customers leave gratuities. The headline requirement: tips must be passed to workers in full, promptly, and fairly.

Employers must have a written tipping policy. That policy must be available to all workers — including agency staff who receive tips under a tronc arrangement. HMRC expects the policy to explain how tips are distributed, who oversees the process, and what workers can do if they believe they have been shorted.

Mellow's policy document store keeps your tipping policy accessible to employees via self-service. It does not automate tronc administration — that typically sits with a specialist tronc master or payroll provider — but it ensures the transparency obligation is met. Review your current arrangement: are tips genuinely passing to staff in full? Is your distribution method documented and fair? These are the questions a HMRC audit or employment tribunal will ask first.