Cafes and restaurants underpaying staff while hitting customers with a public holiday surcharge is “not a rare thing, it’s a relatively common thing,” a hospitality veteran says.

From working as a chef to bartending and managing, 30-year-old Melburnian Harry Connor has worked for an estimated 100 employers over a 15-year career in the hospitality industry.

It has become common practice for cafes and restaurants to levy a surcharge on weekends and public holidays, a fee that can range from 10 to 20 per cent, to help cover staff penalty rates.

“Restaurants, cafes and bistros that charge a surcharge on certain days do not need to provide a separate menu or price list or have a separate price column with the surcharge factored in,” the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says.

“However, the menu must include the words ‘a surcharge of [percentage] applies on [the specified day or days]’ and these words must be displayed at least as prominently as the most prominent price on the menu.”

Whether or not that surcharge is really going towards fairly compensating staff, however, isn’t always as clear.

Hospitality worker Harry Connor is leading the fight against wage theft.

Underpayment of workers – or wage theft – is “an epidemic” in the hospitality industry according to Ben Redford, assistant branch secretary at United Voice Victoria.

“Employers are getting rich by gaming the system. They know the chances of getting caught are remote and the worst they have to fear is being forced to pay back stolen wages,” Mr Redford said.

“At least a fifth of young workers have reported that their hard-earned wages have been stolen from them in scams. They are paid for fewer hours than they work, are illegally denied correct pay, have their superannuation stolen or their accrued leave withheld.”

Under the hospitality industry award full and part-time employees are entitled to $43.81 an hour on public holidays, while casual hospitality employees are owed $48.68 an hour.

“We were being paid a flat rate below the award rate on the two public holidays. I was getting paid around $23 to $24, and other people were getting paid $17 or $18,” Mr Connor told the New Daily.

“[The owners] were charging a 10 per cent surcharge, and I thought it was outrageous, because who was pocketing that money?”

Hospitality workers who give up their public holidays to serve others deserve to be fairly compensated, Mr Connor said.

“For people to sacrifice these days for the community so that others can go out and party and drink and eat really nice food, society should hold that in higher esteem,” he said.

“It’s a bit of a shame that hospitality workers lose those days and, in eight out of 10 cases, don’t get rewarded.”

Mr Connor now volunteers much of his spare time to campaigning against wage theft in the hospitality industry for a new online, member-run union for hospitality workers, Hospo Voice.

Simply finding an employer in the industry willing to pay award rates was a battle, he said.

“After getting sacked by two different employers for querying bad conditions I’ve finally found one that treats me well and pays me properly,” he said.

Now an assistant manager at Squires Loft Cheltenham, Mr Connor understands first-hand that managers and employers need staff that are available to work unfriendly hours, but says “it’s got to be a two-way street”.

His current workplace is a “good testament to the industry”, and proves that businesses can treat their employees fairly while being successful.

“We’ve employed over a thousand people in the last 10 years. It’s all above board and we’re thriving,” he said.

“If we can do it and pay everyone properly, anyone can do it.”

If a cafe or restaurant can’t afford to pay staff properly on public holidays the “smartest thing” for the business to do is to close on those days and give staff some much-needed time off, Mr Connor said.