Tag: tips

WAHLBURGERS RESTAURANT CHAIN SUED FOR MINIMUM WAGE, OVERTIME AND TIP VIOLATIONS

On August 18, 2016, this law firm along with Pechman Law Group PLLC filed a wage and hour class action lawsuit involving over 100 employees in federal court against Wahlburgers restaurant chain located in Coney Island, New York.  Wahlburgers is owned by Mark, Donnie and Paul Wahlberg, celebrity actors and chef.  A&E also has a TV series which follows the brothers as they run their restaurant chain.

The lawsuit alleges that the restaurant violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law by shaving hours of compensable time from the weekly hours of employees, failing to pay its workers minimum wage and overtime, stealing tips from employees and illegally requiring servers to share their tips with non-tipped, back-of-house kitchen staff.

We will be prosecuting these claims and hope to get the employees a recovery.

STARWOOD SETTLES WAGE AND HOUR LAWSUIT FOR NEARLY $1M

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., one of the largest hotel operators in the world, agreed to settle a class action suit brought by waiters working in one of its Westin resorts. 

The complaint alleged that a 20% service charge that was added to customers’ bills at the hotel was not given to food and beverage workers.  Instead, the Westin would either keep a portion of the service charge for itself or use it to pay managers and other non-tipped workers. 

The Westin did not inform customers that the service charge did not completely go to servers and this affected the tips the servers received.  Starwood agreed to pay $940,000 as a settlement and $25,000 to each class representative as incentive payments.

CHICKIE’S AND PETE’S TO PAY $6.8 MILLION FOR VIOLATING WAGE AND HOUR LAWS

Chickie’s and Pete’s, a prominent sports bar with 9 locations throughout New Jersey and Philadelphia, has recently agreed to pay $6.8 million in back wages and damages for taking tips from bartenders and waiters and for violating federal minimum wage and overtime laws.  The U.S. Department of Labor conducted a year long investigation and found that Chickie’s and Pete’s illegally underpaid and took tips from 1,159 servers and improperly retained 60% of the monies from the staff members’ tip pool, which was known as “Pete’s Tax.” 

 Separately, Chickie’s and Pete’s also announced that it agreed to pay an additional $1.68 million to settle a wage and hour claim commenced by 90 current and former employees.  As part of the settlement, Chickie’s and Pete’s also agreed to train all employees regarding their rights under the wage law and operation of tip pools and agreed to compliance monitoring for 18 months. 

The Department of Labor has described this case as one of the largest cases ever brought against an employer for violating tip-credit laws.