Staff at a well-known restaurant have received a grim message threatening to call the police or take them “into the basement” if they keep tips from customers.

A leaked voice note, apparently sent on behalf of the management of the top ranked restaurant Melin Chigwell, has gone viral on social media drawing widespread criticism.

In the message, a cold voice tells staff any money given to them by customers “belongs to the restaurant.”

A man can be heard saying: “You are not paid any tips whatsoever. Nobody has the right to put tips in their pocket, whatsoever.

“I have over 50 CCTV cameras in the building that are visual and voice activated. I can hear everything, and I can see everything. If I see again, yes again, that somebody has put money in their pocket from a customer I will either, one, report it to the police, or two, take them into the basement. Simple as that. You take money from me, I'll take something from you.”

Later, a press statement from the restaurant explained that the manager’s office was “in the basement”.

In October of last year, the UK government announced that it would take steps to force employers to pass on all tips to workers in full, however a bill has yet to be introduced.

As the law currently stands, employees are only legally entitled to retain a cash tip as they are considered their property rather than their employers’. Tips paid on credit or debit cards, on the other hand, are deemed their employers’ property.

In a now deleted Instagram post, the official Melin Chigwell page said tips were collected then split among staff.

The post said: “We have been inundated with messages following the leak of an in-house matter, so we just wanted to clarify our company values.

“Firstly, we take pride in Melin’s wage structure, which sees each individual incentivised weekly via tips collected that are then split among staff, so to learn staff were stealing tips from the entire team was extremely disappointing.”

The post, which had comments disabled, attracted more than 200 likes before being deleted.

Chigwell Parish councillor Pranav Bhanot took to twitter to express his dismay at the incident.

He wrote: "I have always had a great experience and top service from the staff at Melin restaurant in Chigwell. However, this threatening message to the employees from the employer is upsetting and has put me off going."

In their press statement, the management said tips were collected and shared equally among the 55 members of staff of them. Again they accused some staff of pocketing tips for themselves, saying: “This meant that they were receiving the equal share of tips that we had shared out, but also taking extra for themselves which we and the other members off staff felt wasn’t fair."

Epping Forest Guardian:

For more breaking news, local headlines and features, ‘like’ our Facebook page.

We also have a Twitter account: @EppingFGuardian

Follow us to keep up-to-date with news in Epping Forest.