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Waiters and waitresses from across London are protesting over claims that their employers are using their tips to subsidise low wages.

Staff from the capital's eateries are demonstrating outside leading restaurants to urge an end to the practice of bosses counting tips left by customers as part of a worker's wage.

The Unite union wants minimum wage laws changed to close the loophole and is also pressing customers to question who receives the tips that they leave for waiting staff.

It claims that thousands of waiting staff are having their minimum wage subsidised by tips that customers leave for good service, meaning that they have to take a pay cut when they are on holiday or off work sick.

According to Unite, its polling of waiting staff shows that the "vast majority" of restaurant employers take a cut of tips, while most of those who wait on tables also said that they relied on the generosity of customers for their income.

Union leaders claim that many employers openly keep a proportion of service charges and credit card tips in order to "boost profit margins".

Leading restaurants including Pizza Express, Garfunkels, Deep Pan Pizza, and Frankie & Bennies are among those who have been complained about by staff, Unite claims.

Unite regional industrial organiser Dave Turnbull said: "Many customers would be horrified if they knew their service charge went towards paying hard-working waiters and waitresses the minimum wage, rather than rewarding good service.

"Eating out in London is an expensive business yet restaurants are raking it in from high prices, sometimes cheating the customer and the worker," he added.

However a spokesman for Pizza Express denied that the restaurant chain was guilty of the practice and insisted that the company paid the minimum wage to its staff "outright".

He added that waiting staff employed by the firm had always been allowed to keep their tips, something Pizza Express was "proud of".