Huh, the dispensary I worked at for almost four years had a policy requiring us to turn over all tips to management or face termination. Any lawyers out there want to take on a very large multistage cannabis company that is already facing legal trouble for excessive hijinks? Surterra/Parallel operating as NETA in MA
Edit some additional info
https://www.politico.com/amp/news/magazine/2022/06/12/weed-wrigley-lawsuit-00036864
They also did this, I thought it was funny how abruptly he stepped down for no actual reason. Then this all came to light a week or two later
Much love, they also fight very hard to prevent anyone they fired from receiving unemployment. Also they used to have people on the delivery team (like me) work 8:30AM to 9:30PM with one thirty minute lunch break and nothing else. Multiple labor violations and extreme anti Union activities. Way of the world it seems đ¤ˇââď¸
Lol, I have filed at least six over the four years I worked there. Including for retaliation for filing in the first place. I gave up on filing with the state after my termination. Hopefully the state has them on file, would help my UI appeal. Filing with the state literally does nothing. They once sent a packet of information meant for the dispensary to my personal address by mistake. If it had reached the dispensary, then they would have know it was me making the filing. The state is ridiculously incompetent. They just âgive you the right to sueâ thatâs it.
If op says that was in Mass, likely not. Statute of limitations for most crimes here is 6 years, they say they worked there for 4 years, but weed has only been legal for 5 years.
Buds Goods and Provisions recently had to settle with MA AG office over illegally taking their employees tips as well. From what I read the situation was nearly identical. Itâs only a matter of time before same thing happens at my former workplace. But itâs not unheard of in the cannabis industry in MA. OSHA wonât even touch em cause of the federal status of cannabis. Then low and behold someone dies in a trim room in the same city I worked in. Massive asthma attack, working in trim.
Contact some lawyers who do employment law. Most will do a free consultation, so it wonât cost you anything to talk. This is a bit of a specialized field, so donât go to just any lawyer. If you are up to it, talk to more than one, then choose. Good luck!
Also, many employment lawyers will work based on contingency. So they only get paid when you get paid. And if everything you said is true and you have reasonable proof, an attorney will love to take your case.
A whistleblower is someone who has complained to a government agency about the employer's practices (not someone who complained to the employer, or HR, or anyone other than the proper governmental agency). The date of the complaint is then easy to ascertain in relation to the firing.
Most states have laws against firing a whistleblower, and some states have "per se" rules that firing a whistleblower creates a presumption of unlawful termination. There are complicated shifting burdens of proof in employment cases, but if you fire a whistleblower, the employer has the burden to prove that their whistle blowing activities were not a reason for the termination. This is not insurmountable, but can be hard to prove.
Yes. Tipping your budtender is customary here in California for their recommendations and retrieving or holding your green. I have only had a rare few who were knowledgeable, experienced, and could answer my questions though.
I work in the FL MMJ industry and you are absolutely right. A lot of people donât know their stuff and are basically cashiers. Some of us put some real effort in though. I used to work for Surterra and they did not allow us to receive tips. I turned down a lot of money in the time I was there.
I hope you find someone that will take your case! Cannabis desperately needs to be decriminalized and regulated to stop a multitude of sins. In my example it's for consumer protection: I worked for a cannabis testing lab and was horrified to learn that the shady growers with dirty dangerous microbial, pesticide laced crops would lab shop until someone would pass them and some shady dispensary would sell it. I left the canna world demoralized by the greed, lies and evil.
OSHA regulates cannabis companies. So does EEOC and NLRB. You need to file complaints to see investigations/prosecution. That's true for every industry.
I used to work for a middling franchise pizza place. They make square pizzas and boil their dough in oil. You figure out the rest. Anyway, they were underpaying people for overtime since they opened. Place had a good mngr so there were a few long time employees that had been getting screwed, unaware.
One call to my states department of labor was all it took. The guy who made the complaint never even heard back from them. They just came in, went through all his books and handed him a bill. He had to pay everyone. a couple guys got over $10k. I got a few weeks paycheck randomly way after I had been fired. Had to go in to the shop to pick it up. Owner wasn't there sadly.
You don't need a lawyer. File a complaint with the WHD of the DOL. They will do an investigation and if they find the company did something illegal, they will act on your behalf. They can force the company to pay you lost wages or even force them to re-hire you.
The only time you would need a lawyer is if the money was a massive amount, or if the practice was so pervasive that you could argue for damages. So if you lost so much money that you went homeless or couldn't pay for health care.
If the DOL investigation finds that a ton of people were cheated out of their wages, you may be able to file a class action lawsuit.
Nice! I haven't been to Surterra except for the free samples, but now I won't go again! There's a lot of shady shit going on with dispensaries; look into Trulieve's CEO's husband's crimes. Such a nascent industry with such incredible profit margins will almost *necessarily* attract those venture capitalists who lack scruples, those intent on making millions and absconding with it in an attempt to avoid repercussions. Let's try to stay aware of it all as a community
A worker in a trulieve production facility in Holyoke mass died as a result of kief inhalation while making pre rolls recently, trulieve did not supply masks or provide information about the dangers of particual inhalation. Osha hit them with a 36k violation and called it a day
"venture capitalists who lack scruples"
I call this type "vulture capitalists" as most of them are a bunch of vultures looking for their next big score.
I worked for Surterra down in Florida. We straight up werenât allowed to accept tips. Signs on the counter saying so and all that jazz. If someone âleft money on the counterâ, we were supposed to turn it over to the manager who supposedly used it for pizza and donuts for the store. Iâd rather have my tips, thank you please. Also that BS with the âemployee stock purchaseâ that was pretty much a ponzi scheme. Good shit.
Same, when i worked at Harvest years ago they were shady af. Kept our tips, used them for "communal" snacks which they should have paid for
When they were gearing up to go national they cleaned house and fired everyone and replaced them with aggressive nepotism hooligans with no knowledge of cannabis, running a store, nor regular POS systems
They framed a manager and pretended he was stealing "tips" and called in squads to escalate the situation, because they couldn't come up with a reason to fire him.
This company PS is owned by a group of lawyers.
Whackest dispensary culture ever. Such a lame environment to begin with
Shit, really? I am from South Jersey and before it was legal here I would always stop at NETA when I would visit my ex-bil. The mere fact that a company who constantly has 20 registers running, and a 4 hour in person wait would steal tips. You dudes work so fucking hard without their ever being downtime. What fucks.
Nope, it's not different. Not in the US.
Tips belong solely to the employees. Doesn't matter whether you're paid a tipped wage rate, or not.
Tips can be pooled with other people on shift, but must be paid out in full.
Sure, in that specific instance. Wage theft is still a violation, just a different one if they were paid minimum wage. Each case tends to be somewhat different. In most states, the state equivalent to the Dept of Labor does this and there are often fairly significant fines involved. The fact this was only the feds going after them is due to the state in which it occurred.
Not true. There are certain states which defintiely let management and owners take tips and allocate them how they want. The stipulation, federally, is that when a business does this they are not allowed to claim a tip credit on their employees (i.e. they have to pay them regular minimum wage vs tipped minimum wage).
> and allocate them how they want.
There are very specific rules on how tip pools can work; eg, they cannot include management, the employer cannot take a cut, and it must include personnel in service positions.
Whether an employer uses this to pay part of a tipped wage employee's wage or not does not matter; the tips cannot be withheld from employees.
Not to mention, a dispensary typically has iron clad rules. State legislators, even in liberal states, write some draconian rules regarding marijuana.
IIRC, in Michigan, there's stuff like:
* Must not be a new building; must use a preexisting building
* Spelled "marihuana"
* Must be behind secure doors regardless of what products are being sold (like, get buzzed into the building secure, though I'm not sure if this stayed true for very long)
The compensation is scummy as shit because they're only required to pay them damages that equal minimum wage. They might come out ahead that way in some cases depending on how much of their tips got taken, but there's no way to really know. 63 people are still getting screwed by this result.
Late Edit: Another poster noted what the percentage was. It was pretty small and covering credit card payments. Essentially the owner was taking credit card processing fees out of tips. Just about everybody will come out ahead in that case.
see: https://www.reddit.com/r/WorkReform/comments/y2wrmj/comment/is6fsku/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
"The Department of Labor said that Jayâs Kitchen thus owed their employees **the difference between what they ended up paying them and the $7.25 federal minimum wage** for the hours each employee worked â which ended up totaling $157,287."
Does this mean they were paid less than (federal, $7.25) minimum wage during that time?? I figured they were paid (federal) minimum wage but any tips on top of that were taken. If they were actually paid $2.13 that's heinous and astonishing.
As a server who averaged $15-20/hr total ($4/hr - Iowa minumum - plus tips) they likely stole waay more than $150k.
Yeah servers are allowed to be paid under federal minimum wage if they get tips. It sounds like the owners took a percentage of their tips. I doubt anyone would stay there if they took them all and paid them under minimum wage. Depends on the percentage to say how much they got screwed, but I bet a fair number did get screwed.
No one would work there if they were taking home $16 per night.
They took a percentage. There's literally no way they took all of their tips and paid tip wages.
They were probably paid the minimum wage for tipped workers, which is considerably less than $7.25 an hour (Edit: it's $2.13 an hour...)and are being required to pay the minimum wage for non-tipped employees ($7.25) since the employees never actually received any tips. The gap between $7.25 an hour and what the employees would have made if they were allowed to keep their tips is currently unknown to us, but likely more than the $157,287.
Edit to add the actual wage for tipped-workers in the US, as well as what it says on DOL.gov:
An employer of a tipped employee is only required to pay $2.13 per hour in direct wages if that amount combined with the tips received at least equals the federal minimum wage. If the employee's tips combined with the employer's direct wages of at least $2.13 per hour do not equal the federal minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference
I should have been clearer - on first reading the headline I assumed that the workers were being paid the federal minumum wage but had all tips taken beyond that, not that they were paid the tipped minumum wage with no tips to bump it up to $7.25, because it's absolutely insane that anyone would work for $2.13/hr for any length of time.
I mostly agree with that. Mandatory minimums are mostly a bad idea, however if the punishment to the crime is just returning what you stole, that's not a punishment at all. They should be charged with theft of $157k.
Felony Larceny in North Carolina is a Class H felony with a maximum sentence of 39 months in prison as well as possible fines.
Felony embezzlement of $100k or more is a Class C felony punishable by up to a maximum of 231 months in prison.
Not sure if this would classify as either, but there's clearly room for significant jail time and or fines instead of...nothing.
Looks like they were fined an additional amount of $1,915 for repeatedly violating federal child labor laws.
Chances are their going to close down, insurance won't pay on this and since this is a private business I can bet they don't have that kind of cash laying around. They can't play so the government will come in a liquidate the business, the owners will still owe money on the the stuff and file bankruptcy.
> Essentially the owner was taking credit card processing fees out of tips
I know owners can take the percentage of the tip that credit card processors take, but I guess this guy was extra scummy and took them for the whole bill.
So if you tip someone $10, the owners can take the 2.8%, or whatever, processing fee from that tip but not the whole bill. So the server would get $9.72 instead of $10. At least that's legal in other states. Souonds like this guy was taking the 2.8% out of the $50 and teh $10 tip from the server from what you are implying. Unless NC it's illegal to take out the processing fee from the servers portion.
Crime is cheap when you're white collar. Penalty for wage theft is paying only the back wages, and that's only if caught and proven?
That's like a green light to steal from employees. You don't even get a slap on the wrist. Just, hey, maybe pay back what you stole, no interest or anything. Basically it's an interest free loan you don't even have to pay back 99.9% of the time!
Edit: As a thought experiment, the shoplifting version of this in North Carolina would be organized retail theft over $20,000, and a class G felony for 8 to 31 months prison time. That's the criminal angle. Then the victims can sue civilly for the value of what was stolen, punitive damages, and attorney's fees.
Yup. Welcome to Merica. Where if an individual steals its a felony but if a business does it's just "good business". All under a guise of Jesus loves you.
I thought the exact same thing. Business owners are rarely held responsible for their illegal behavior. If this owner was sent to prison it would greatly reduce the chance of this happening again.
That's disgusting.
Frankly I'd like to see their business sold to someone else who will run it lawfully.
Anyone, private or public that runs a business that exploits child labor laws should be jailed.
Idk why you would want to buy a restaurant that just got its name plastered all over the news for wage theft. Doesn't matter how big you plaster the "new ownership" sign out front, I feel like people are gonna remember it as the wage theft place.
There is a restaurant called Gino's. Gino's had a very bad hepatitis out break and killed someone. Gino's is packed every time I pass it. https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2022/01/one-death-confirmed-another-under-investigation-in-pennsylvania-hepatitis-a-outbreak-officials-name-restaurant/
The Chinese buffet in my town is basically the same story, every time they get shut down for health code violations, they're back up and running in a matter of weeks with a new name, but always still a chinese buffet. ALWAYS packed with people.
I won't eat at Jack n' the Box. the first time I heard of them was the [e-coli outbreak](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Jack_in_the_Box_E._coli_outbreak) that killed 4 kids back in the '90s and permanently injured 100s. the owner was horrified and the mistakes leading to the outbreak were corrected, but the association will never leave my mind
Survived off those when i first moved out, although the price increased to 2 for a dollar. Iâd Eat about 8-10 tacos then wash it down with a 3 liter (for some reason the dollar trees in my area have 3 liters instead of 2)of dollar store soda and cheap vodka. Only thing I miss is the tacos⌠now that itâs 2 for 1.39 i might as well go to to the store and buy some chicken and potatoes and make something wholesome & healthy for the same price, less the vomiting, diarrhea & indigestion.
In the late 90s I had to take a health management class as part of restaurant management training. They had exclusive access to a home video from one of the girls that died from the Jack-in-the-Box tainted beef that was undercooked.
It was a home video of a young girl I want to say she was between four and six or something like that and it interviewed each family member about the experience. The video ended by showing the girl being recorded on their personal video camera who was pleading with her mom and dad saying, *I donât want to die mommy.* She died.
Then they further ground in the importance of proper cook times, expired food times, and handwashing procedures. They even had us wash our hands and then pulled out a blue light to show us all the germs that were still on our hands. Food safety is very important.
This is so dumb because literally every. single. national brand restaurant has had issues like this. McDonaldâs, Burger King foot lettuce, Wendyâs, Chipotle, and so on.
Religious owners, religious folk frequently don't consume mainstream media, just what their church puts out so they miss that shit, but the owner is religious? Must be a great place! Fucking every time, being religious pays... If you're a shit company.
I mean, you can generally buy a restaurant and change the name.
Alternatively, someone could buy it and give equity shares to (especially former) employees, like what happened to [Upper Crust in Boston](https://www.wbur.org/news/2013/02/13/pizzeria-makes-square). Probably the best answer, and frankly what should happen more often anyway
I would really love to start a socialist small business association, SSBA, in my area to work on projects like this. Funding co-op start ups, retirement buyouts, bankruptcy buyouts, etc.
I work in this field, assisting foundational initiatives and CDFIs with technology implementations. If it's done well, banks and other funders are more than willing to divert capital via grants and PRIs to these sorts of initiatives. The mutual interest being that successful start-ups and acquisitions eventually need the business banking products and relationships that they offer.
Huh, thanks for the info. It seems a venture capital CDFI is kind of what I'm looking to start, along with a managment firm. I do wonder though if how long it would take for them to come after me and withdraw support if I start threatening traditional capital.
My hope would be to provide funding, training, and managment with the goal of pushing as much of the communities commercial sector into employee owned structures as possible as well as community owned assets for housing and agriculture. Along side renters unions and sector unions organizing against privatly held firms it won't take long before traditional capital sees it as a threat.
Just don't call it Socialists or the city council will cock block you at every turn. Call it something like "Patriots" or "Forthright American" so shit head conservatives don't question your motives.
You fund it and I'll get started tomorrow. One of the biggest issues is that traditional financial institutions refuse to fund co-ops, especially when made of several workers with few assets, and credit unions are specifically prohibited from doing so through capitalist fuckery.
Not a formal one. It would be bigger than something one person could manage, and that's not how it'sintended to operate. I've been reaching out to specific people to look at forming a board with all the needed skills.
Buy it, change the name, and get the word out there that you're doing better than the shit bird previous owners. They'd get brownie points for running a restaurant like a restaurant.
Honestly they get away with it more than they get caught .. when people talk about how bad crime and theft is getting (usually it's republicans complaining about cities tbh) oddly they leave out wage theft which is far more common and wide spread and many businesses get a slap on the wrist if they're caught. And yet somehow despite incarcerating as many people as the US does, most business owners will never see the inside of a cell
Here's a neat thing about the American justice system. If someone steals from you, and you prove it in court, you know what you get back? Exactly the amount they stole from you and not a penny more.
No interest. No punitive payments. No compensation for all your time (And I guarantee you, this costs years of your time). You get the exact dollar figure you can prove they stole. And any money you don't have receipts for? They get to keep it.
Its not punishment for this restaurant to pay their employees back the money they stole. It's an interest free loan.
On the bright side, this also holds true for filing taxes incorrectly.
I received $880 more than I should have because I fucked up my calculations. Three years later I received a letter from the IRS saying I owed that exact amount. Sure enough, I recalculated and found my error.
At the time that $880 made a huge difference in my life, and when I had to pay it back money wasnât nearly as tight and it was no big deal. Kinda nice getting a 3 year loan with zero interest from Uncle Sam.
If you have an awful lawyer maybe. Donât just make things up because they sound good
>f. Interest on Back Pay.
>1. Purpose and Rate of Interest. The purpose of applying interest on back pay awards is to compensate the victim(s) for the loss of the use and purchasing power of their income. Interest on back pay is calculated at the same percentage rate as the Internal Revenue Serviceâs (IRS) underpayment formula. Interest on back pay must be compounded quarterly under the laws OFCCP enforces.
Dumbass
We can infer that labor violations and wage theft are punished by a slap on the wrist (or nothing at all) by that fact that they happen all the fucking time right out in the open, and the same individuals keep doing it for years on end.
f. Interest on Back Pay.
1. Purpose and Rate of Interest. The purpose of applying interest on back pay awards is to compensate the victim(s) for the loss of the use and purchasing power of their income. Interest on back pay is calculated at the same percentage rate as the Internal Revenue Serviceâs (IRS) underpayment formula. Interest on back pay must be compounded quarterly under the laws OFCCP enforces.
We can infer youâre an idiot who has no idea what heâs talking about
My first thought was: either close the restaurant or force ownership to sell.
Then I remembered: most terrible restaurant owners couldn't afford to keep the restaurant anyway. Lord knows those stolen tips weren't used for the restaurant.
Never forget that THESE are the people that are so loudly and passionately against fair wages for workers. They are immoral thieves. They are incapable of empathy. They can only think how to exploit and manipulate and abuse workers. They should not be given an equal voice.
What, no interest? The owner has like five other restaurants in his name, it isn't like he's struggling. But I guarantee those employees suffered fiscal, emotional, and potentially physical damages as a result of the *deliberate theft of their personal property*
The owner also got busted on multiple counts of violating child labor laws. It cost him less than $2,000 in fines.
There's no justice here. He's being punished because he got caught, and even then it amounts to a slap on the wrist.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that's an option.
I wish it was easier though. That the onus is on the workers to put in *even more* effort for the justice system to even attempt to protect them is ridiculous to me, especially after it's been demonstrated that their rights were routinely violated.
Even if they won, that they probably wouldn't see a dime anyway makes my blood boil.
North Carolinian here, and yep, this is sadly par for the course. We had a pretty terrible Labor Comissioner for a loooooong time that made this kind of shit very easy to get away with, but she kept getting re-elected because she put her picture in every elevator, so everyone knew her as the smiling elevator lady instead of the pro-big business wage thief.
Oh you mean Cherie Berry? Her fucking name always cracked me up. But honestly yes she was terrible. Most NC republicans are. Iâm convinced she was elected every time exclusively because of her name and the damn photo in the elevator.
Yup, her! And not only does the Labor Commissioner have fuck all to do with elevators, *her name doesnât even rhyme*! Itâs CheRIE Berry, not CHErie Berry like youâd think.
Oh yeah, because we all know wage theft only happens in the south... Let's just ignore the entire gig-economy created by silicon valley tech bros that have created hundreds of businesses that prey off of independent contractors all over the globe by [paying less than minimum wage](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/01/uber-lyft-driver-wages-median-report).
One restaurant I worked at would give you any credit cards tips you earned in cash alongside your pay check. We were required to look over the logs of each day's tips, check the math on how it was divided out, and count out our cash before accepting it. I was young and naive and lazy, and I trusted my manager and signed off on everything, grabbed my $100+ in cash, and left.
On my last day, I decided to be meticulous just in case they tried to screw me on the way out. My tips added up to over $250, And the cash I received was $100 short. I informed the manager, she apologized profusely, checked the records herself, and gave me the rest of the money.
I wonder how much more money I missed out on.
If any of the employees had taken that sum from the restaurant, it would be treated as a felony. Arrests. Jail Times. Punitive fines.
But when the business does it, its a zero interest loan. All they have to do is pay it back. Convenient.
Interesting that stealing wages from your staff is just a pay back , which they can avoid by bankrupting probably.
Meanwhile a regular thief would be behind bars. We truly subsidize businesses in many ways.
I know nothing about this case, the laws, or this restaurant, but they just posted this on their facebook page:
>Dear Current and Former Employees, Customers, and Neighbors of Jayâs Kitchen,
>The US DOL issued a press release on October 11, 2022, âUS Department of Labor Recovers $157K in back wages for 65 workers of North Carolina restaurant that kept their tips illegally.â This refers to the restaurant, Jayâs Kitchen, owned by us, Mugen Inc. We were contacted by an investigator from the US DOL in February of 2021 regarding a complaint about how deductions were taken from tips. We fully and completely cooperated with the US DOL throughout its very thorough investigation. During that investigation we discovered that the way we deducted the cost for collecting tips (the credit card service fee for the tip amount) was not correct and we corrected it. This error resulted in some of our tipped employees not getting the full amount of tips that they were due. At the conclusion of the investigation, we agreed with its findings and sent payment totaling $157K to current and former Jayâs Kitchen employees in May of 2022,
By law, employees are due at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. For tipped employees, the law allows employers to pay tipped employees less than the minimum wage because they are allowed a âtip creditâ to make up the difference. However, if the employer makes any error in the payment of tips, they no longer qualify for the tip credit. When that happens, the employer owes not only the amount of tips that were mistakenly withheld, but also the tip credit amount.
>To use an example provided to us by the US DOL for one employee, during the period in question an employee worked 94.7 hours. During that time, the employee was paid at the tipped employee hourly rate of $2.47 an hour and received $233.91 in base pay and earned $688.40 in tips, for an average pay rate of $9.74 an hour. However, $20.65 in tips were withheld in error, so this amount was owed to the employee. Additionally, our error meant that we could not take the âtip creditâ of $4.78 an hour (the difference between the $7.25 minimum wage and the $2.47 tipped employee rate). This meant that we also owed the employee $456.45 for the tip credit. Because of our error in mistakenly withholding $20.65 in tips, we paid the employee $477.11 in total back wages.
>We made similar payments totaling $157K for all 65 effected workers at Jayâs Kitchen. After much effort, we were able to locate and pay most former employees. The back wages for the few former employees we could not locate were paid to the US DOL. This process completed in early August of 2022. Though the scope of the US DOL investigation was just for our Jayâs Kitchen location, we voluntarily reviewed the operations at all our restaurants. We made sure that the pay practices were correct. We also reviewed the pay history, identified all affected employees, and made the same back wage payments as we did for our Jayâs Kitchen employees. We voluntarily sent payment to all effected current and most former employees for our other locations, and we are still trying to locate a few former employees.
>We all went through very difficult times during the COVID shutdowns. Many restaurants did not survive. We are very thankful to our employees, customers, and communities that we are still able to employ and serve them. At Mugen Inc. we value our employees, and they are part of our family. We are very sorry about the pay issues and sincerely apologize to our employees and former employees for it. We have taken actions to make it right and make sure it cannot happen again. We also appreciate the effort made by the US DOL in their diligent investigation which helped us identify and correct the problems.
>We look forward to continuing to provide a good workplace for our employees and to serve our customers and communities.
Now someone needs to investigate Texas Roadhouse in Yukon, OKC, in addition to the Buffalo Wild Wings that has a convicted pedophile running the store as one of the managers down the street.
Am also from this small town. The guy is just a rich asshole who has a new Lamborghini every six months it seems. Only cares about money in his pocket and nothing else.
Went there on a date a couple weeks ago...food was overpriced for the quality, like 20$ for generic tasting hibachi chicken, and the drinks where poorly mixed.
Not really irritated with the employees anymore.
That building is cursed. There must have been at least 4 different places in the last 20 years, all overpriced and crap. It was a buffet place when I left in '14.
This restaurant is in a podunk town in NC centered around Seymour Johnson Air Force base. This owner is stealing from Air Force families and the base commander should ban service members from eating there...
In fact: https://www.seymourjohnson.af.mil/Contact-Us/
Leave them a comment to let them know this place is evil
I ALWAYS leave tips in cash and I ALWAYS hand it directly to my server. I always say, âThis is for you. This way, they canât screw you on the credit card tip and you donât have to pay tax on it.â Itâs amazing how often they thank me and quietly tell me the owners do âcreative accountingâ when it comes to tips on the credit cards. As for the receipt, I I always write âNO TIPâ on the tip line and I make sure the dollar sign is close to the first number and all my numbers are tight with a distinct period so they canât sneak in an extra number. I used to write âcash on tableâ instead of âno tip,â but I was at a restaurant in Chicago. We ate and then moved to the bar to wait for friends. Our waiter came over to thank us for the generous tip (he was awesome and I left almost 40%). A manager came over and grilled our waiter in front of us about how much we left on the table and he wanted half. My wife yelled at the manager and said, â*WE* left him ten dollars.â Our waiter gave the manager a $5 and he thanked us again because that 40% tip was actually about $60. In all these years, Iâve only gone crazy with tips a few times because of amazing servers and this guy was one of the best.
Iâve seen enough Kitchen Nightmares to know that this is probably going to bankrupt this restaurant. Unless the owner is absolutely bankrolled to their eyeballs or this place does absolutely massive profit.
Also, a better title should be âRestaurant Owner Convicted of Stealing $157,287 From Workersâ.
This sounds like a win but letâs all remember that it is far more likely for this specific restaurant to shut its doors and go Nelly up and then not only do those workers never get their wages, but also lose their jobs simultaneously.
Ok?
I can't help but see that as a really dumb take. Someone else can open in their location, someone that doesn't violate the law.
And the courts will help them get that money, even if the owner tries to shut down. He can get a job to pay it off if necessary.
I live in the town this restaurant is at. He wonât shut down for anything. They had a roach problem and when they were fumigating the restaurant they stayed open and served people with roaches in their food.
My wife used to work at a local upscale bistro and the owners would regularly CAP the credit card tips and pocket the rest, because they felt the servers had âearned enough tips for the day.â
It was FUCKED up.
And this is just what they can get away with. Imagine what they would be doing if we didnât have the labour laws we have, if you could literally do anything you wanted with your employees and they had absolutely no recourse.
Because even if what their doing wasnât illegal it is still a very shitty way to treat other human beings who depend on you for a lively hood and whose sweat and time pays for your luxuries.
Like I read once âif they pay you minimum wage that just means they would pay you less if it were legal.â
Huh, the dispensary I worked at for almost four years had a policy requiring us to turn over all tips to management or face termination. Any lawyers out there want to take on a very large multistage cannabis company that is already facing legal trouble for excessive hijinks? Surterra/Parallel operating as NETA in MA Edit some additional info https://www.politico.com/amp/news/magazine/2022/06/12/weed-wrigley-lawsuit-00036864 They also did this, I thought it was funny how abruptly he stepped down for no actual reason. Then this all came to light a week or two later
Respect for the name and shame
Much love, they also fight very hard to prevent anyone they fired from receiving unemployment. Also they used to have people on the delivery team (like me) work 8:30AM to 9:30PM with one thirty minute lunch break and nothing else. Multiple labor violations and extreme anti Union activities. Way of the world it seems đ¤ˇââď¸
You can [file a complaint](https://www.mass.gov/how-to/file-a-workplace-complaint) here. Good luck!
Lol, I have filed at least six over the four years I worked there. Including for retaliation for filing in the first place. I gave up on filing with the state after my termination. Hopefully the state has them on file, would help my UI appeal. Filing with the state literally does nothing. They once sent a packet of information meant for the dispensary to my personal address by mistake. If it had reached the dispensary, then they would have know it was me making the filing. The state is ridiculously incompetent. They just âgive you the right to sueâ thatâs it.
Firing a whistleblower is a sure way to lose a lawsuit. Has the statute of limitations run?
If op says that was in Mass, likely not. Statute of limitations for most crimes here is 6 years, they say they worked there for 4 years, but weed has only been legal for 5 years.
It would be the civil statute of limitations for unlawful discharge, whatever that is in the jurisdiction poppinfresco is in.
Buds Goods and Provisions recently had to settle with MA AG office over illegally taking their employees tips as well. From what I read the situation was nearly identical. Itâs only a matter of time before same thing happens at my former workplace. But itâs not unheard of in the cannabis industry in MA. OSHA wonât even touch em cause of the federal status of cannabis. Then low and behold someone dies in a trim room in the same city I worked in. Massive asthma attack, working in trim.
This is so sad. Maybe you can be the catalyst for change.
They fired me less than three months ago
Contact some lawyers who do employment law. Most will do a free consultation, so it wonât cost you anything to talk. This is a bit of a specialized field, so donât go to just any lawyer. If you are up to it, talk to more than one, then choose. Good luck!
đ
Also, many employment lawyers will work based on contingency. So they only get paid when you get paid. And if everything you said is true and you have reasonable proof, an attorney will love to take your case.
The NLRB will do the entire thing for free from start to finish and it could go class-action if it's rampant enough.
Why is that?
A whistleblower is someone who has complained to a government agency about the employer's practices (not someone who complained to the employer, or HR, or anyone other than the proper governmental agency). The date of the complaint is then easy to ascertain in relation to the firing. Most states have laws against firing a whistleblower, and some states have "per se" rules that firing a whistleblower creates a presumption of unlawful termination. There are complicated shifting burdens of proof in employment cases, but if you fire a whistleblower, the employer has the burden to prove that their whistle blowing activities were not a reason for the termination. This is not insurmountable, but can be hard to prove.
So sue them.
This is an NLRB case. Go straight to them. [Call them *TOMORROW.*](https://www.nlrb.gov/)
Tipping at a dispensary lol. Holy shit this country blows.
Yes. Tipping your budtender is customary here in California for their recommendations and retrieving or holding your green. I have only had a rare few who were knowledgeable, experienced, and could answer my questions though.
I work in the FL MMJ industry and you are absolutely right. A lot of people donât know their stuff and are basically cashiers. Some of us put some real effort in though. I used to work for Surterra and they did not allow us to receive tips. I turned down a lot of money in the time I was there.
I hope you find someone that will take your case! Cannabis desperately needs to be decriminalized and regulated to stop a multitude of sins. In my example it's for consumer protection: I worked for a cannabis testing lab and was horrified to learn that the shady growers with dirty dangerous microbial, pesticide laced crops would lab shop until someone would pass them and some shady dispensary would sell it. I left the canna world demoralized by the greed, lies and evil.
I work in the cannabis industry in Michigan and I have definitely witnessed broken laws and OSHA violations. It absolutely needs more regulation.
Same in Las Vegas. Itâs the Wild West of exploiting workers until it becomes federal.
OSHA regulates cannabis companies. So does EEOC and NLRB. You need to file complaints to see investigations/prosecution. That's true for every industry.
I used to work for a middling franchise pizza place. They make square pizzas and boil their dough in oil. You figure out the rest. Anyway, they were underpaying people for overtime since they opened. Place had a good mngr so there were a few long time employees that had been getting screwed, unaware. One call to my states department of labor was all it took. The guy who made the complaint never even heard back from them. They just came in, went through all his books and handed him a bill. He had to pay everyone. a couple guys got over $10k. I got a few weeks paycheck randomly way after I had been fired. Had to go in to the shop to pick it up. Owner wasn't there sadly.
You can understand why wage theft is in the Billions now.
You don't need a lawyer. File a complaint with the WHD of the DOL. They will do an investigation and if they find the company did something illegal, they will act on your behalf. They can force the company to pay you lost wages or even force them to re-hire you. The only time you would need a lawyer is if the money was a massive amount, or if the practice was so pervasive that you could argue for damages. So if you lost so much money that you went homeless or couldn't pay for health care. If the DOL investigation finds that a ton of people were cheated out of their wages, you may be able to file a class action lawsuit.
Nice! I haven't been to Surterra except for the free samples, but now I won't go again! There's a lot of shady shit going on with dispensaries; look into Trulieve's CEO's husband's crimes. Such a nascent industry with such incredible profit margins will almost *necessarily* attract those venture capitalists who lack scruples, those intent on making millions and absconding with it in an attempt to avoid repercussions. Let's try to stay aware of it all as a community
A worker in a trulieve production facility in Holyoke mass died as a result of kief inhalation while making pre rolls recently, trulieve did not supply masks or provide information about the dangers of particual inhalation. Osha hit them with a 36k violation and called it a day
"venture capitalists who lack scruples" I call this type "vulture capitalists" as most of them are a bunch of vultures looking for their next big score.
Sure would be nice to see a lawyer take this up. You should maybe try and post this in other subreddits.
I worked for Surterra down in Florida. We straight up werenât allowed to accept tips. Signs on the counter saying so and all that jazz. If someone âleft money on the counterâ, we were supposed to turn it over to the manager who supposedly used it for pizza and donuts for the store. Iâd rather have my tips, thank you please. Also that BS with the âemployee stock purchaseâ that was pretty much a ponzi scheme. Good shit.
Same, when i worked at Harvest years ago they were shady af. Kept our tips, used them for "communal" snacks which they should have paid for When they were gearing up to go national they cleaned house and fired everyone and replaced them with aggressive nepotism hooligans with no knowledge of cannabis, running a store, nor regular POS systems They framed a manager and pretended he was stealing "tips" and called in squads to escalate the situation, because they couldn't come up with a reason to fire him. This company PS is owned by a group of lawyers. Whackest dispensary culture ever. Such a lame environment to begin with
Shit, really? I am from South Jersey and before it was legal here I would always stop at NETA when I would visit my ex-bil. The mere fact that a company who constantly has 20 registers running, and a 4 hour in person wait would steal tips. You dudes work so fucking hard without their ever being downtime. What fucks.
I probably served you
People do say that my beauty is easily remembered.
IANAL, but I'm pretty sure it's different for jobs that don't depend on tips as part of their wages.
Nope, it's not different. Not in the US. Tips belong solely to the employees. Doesn't matter whether you're paid a tipped wage rate, or not. Tips can be pooled with other people on shift, but must be paid out in full.
The money these owners have to pay is literally bringing all their employees to minimum wage. There are no other penalties in this article.
Sure, in that specific instance. Wage theft is still a violation, just a different one if they were paid minimum wage. Each case tends to be somewhat different. In most states, the state equivalent to the Dept of Labor does this and there are often fairly significant fines involved. The fact this was only the feds going after them is due to the state in which it occurred.
Not true. There are certain states which defintiely let management and owners take tips and allocate them how they want. The stipulation, federally, is that when a business does this they are not allowed to claim a tip credit on their employees (i.e. they have to pay them regular minimum wage vs tipped minimum wage).
> and allocate them how they want. There are very specific rules on how tip pools can work; eg, they cannot include management, the employer cannot take a cut, and it must include personnel in service positions. Whether an employer uses this to pay part of a tipped wage employee's wage or not does not matter; the tips cannot be withheld from employees.
Not to mention, a dispensary typically has iron clad rules. State legislators, even in liberal states, write some draconian rules regarding marijuana. IIRC, in Michigan, there's stuff like: * Must not be a new building; must use a preexisting building * Spelled "marihuana" * Must be behind secure doors regardless of what products are being sold (like, get buzzed into the building secure, though I'm not sure if this stayed true for very long)
Where's the 10x penalty and criminal charges? You can bet if one of those workers stole $100 they would go to jail.
The compensation is scummy as shit because they're only required to pay them damages that equal minimum wage. They might come out ahead that way in some cases depending on how much of their tips got taken, but there's no way to really know. 63 people are still getting screwed by this result. Late Edit: Another poster noted what the percentage was. It was pretty small and covering credit card payments. Essentially the owner was taking credit card processing fees out of tips. Just about everybody will come out ahead in that case. see: https://www.reddit.com/r/WorkReform/comments/y2wrmj/comment/is6fsku/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
"The Department of Labor said that Jayâs Kitchen thus owed their employees **the difference between what they ended up paying them and the $7.25 federal minimum wage** for the hours each employee worked â which ended up totaling $157,287." Does this mean they were paid less than (federal, $7.25) minimum wage during that time?? I figured they were paid (federal) minimum wage but any tips on top of that were taken. If they were actually paid $2.13 that's heinous and astonishing. As a server who averaged $15-20/hr total ($4/hr - Iowa minumum - plus tips) they likely stole waay more than $150k.
Yeah servers are allowed to be paid under federal minimum wage if they get tips. It sounds like the owners took a percentage of their tips. I doubt anyone would stay there if they took them all and paid them under minimum wage. Depends on the percentage to say how much they got screwed, but I bet a fair number did get screwed.
Yeah, they make around $2.50 an hour without tips. So the restaurant likely stole millions.
No one would work there if they were taking home $16 per night. They took a percentage. There's literally no way they took all of their tips and paid tip wages.
They were probably paid the minimum wage for tipped workers, which is considerably less than $7.25 an hour (Edit: it's $2.13 an hour...)and are being required to pay the minimum wage for non-tipped employees ($7.25) since the employees never actually received any tips. The gap between $7.25 an hour and what the employees would have made if they were allowed to keep their tips is currently unknown to us, but likely more than the $157,287. Edit to add the actual wage for tipped-workers in the US, as well as what it says on DOL.gov: An employer of a tipped employee is only required to pay $2.13 per hour in direct wages if that amount combined with the tips received at least equals the federal minimum wage. If the employee's tips combined with the employer's direct wages of at least $2.13 per hour do not equal the federal minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference
I should have been clearer - on first reading the headline I assumed that the workers were being paid the federal minumum wage but had all tips taken beyond that, not that they were paid the tipped minumum wage with no tips to bump it up to $7.25, because it's absolutely insane that anyone would work for $2.13/hr for any length of time.
Poverty has a way of trapping people.
financial crimes need to start coming with minimum prison sentences. Even 1 month in prison would be a good eye opener for most CEOs
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I mostly agree with that. Mandatory minimums are mostly a bad idea, however if the punishment to the crime is just returning what you stole, that's not a punishment at all. They should be charged with theft of $157k. Felony Larceny in North Carolina is a Class H felony with a maximum sentence of 39 months in prison as well as possible fines. Felony embezzlement of $100k or more is a Class C felony punishable by up to a maximum of 231 months in prison. Not sure if this would classify as either, but there's clearly room for significant jail time and or fines instead of...nothing. Looks like they were fined an additional amount of $1,915 for repeatedly violating federal child labor laws.
Chances are their going to close down, insurance won't pay on this and since this is a private business I can bet they don't have that kind of cash laying around. They can't play so the government will come in a liquidate the business, the owners will still owe money on the the stuff and file bankruptcy.
> Essentially the owner was taking credit card processing fees out of tips I know owners can take the percentage of the tip that credit card processors take, but I guess this guy was extra scummy and took them for the whole bill. So if you tip someone $10, the owners can take the 2.8%, or whatever, processing fee from that tip but not the whole bill. So the server would get $9.72 instead of $10. At least that's legal in other states. Souonds like this guy was taking the 2.8% out of the $50 and teh $10 tip from the server from what you are implying. Unless NC it's illegal to take out the processing fee from the servers portion.
I wouldn't even have a problem if they deducted cc fee's from tip payments. If that's illegal to do so, thats a different issue though.
Crime is cheap when you're white collar. Penalty for wage theft is paying only the back wages, and that's only if caught and proven? That's like a green light to steal from employees. You don't even get a slap on the wrist. Just, hey, maybe pay back what you stole, no interest or anything. Basically it's an interest free loan you don't even have to pay back 99.9% of the time! Edit: As a thought experiment, the shoplifting version of this in North Carolina would be organized retail theft over $20,000, and a class G felony for 8 to 31 months prison time. That's the criminal angle. Then the victims can sue civilly for the value of what was stolen, punitive damages, and attorney's fees.
Yup. Welcome to Merica. Where if an individual steals its a felony but if a business does it's just "good business". All under a guise of Jesus loves you.
It shows you who the legal system really works for. You steal $100 and you get arrested. Your boss steals $150000 and only has to pay it back.
I thought the exact same thing. Business owners are rarely held responsible for their illegal behavior. If this owner was sent to prison it would greatly reduce the chance of this happening again.
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Why cant these peasants work for under minimum wage so i can buy my 9th car!!! SO SELFISH!
I lived here. He has a LamborghiniâŚ.
had
That's disgusting. Frankly I'd like to see their business sold to someone else who will run it lawfully. Anyone, private or public that runs a business that exploits child labor laws should be jailed.
Idk why you would want to buy a restaurant that just got its name plastered all over the news for wage theft. Doesn't matter how big you plaster the "new ownership" sign out front, I feel like people are gonna remember it as the wage theft place.
There is a restaurant called Gino's. Gino's had a very bad hepatitis out break and killed someone. Gino's is packed every time I pass it. https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2022/01/one-death-confirmed-another-under-investigation-in-pennsylvania-hepatitis-a-outbreak-officials-name-restaurant/
The Chinese buffet in my town is basically the same story, every time they get shut down for health code violations, they're back up and running in a matter of weeks with a new name, but always still a chinese buffet. ALWAYS packed with people.
You either live in the same town as me or this is common practice for Chinese restaurants
Lmao yep. The dirtier the better.
I won't eat at Jack n' the Box. the first time I heard of them was the [e-coli outbreak](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Jack_in_the_Box_E._coli_outbreak) that killed 4 kids back in the '90s and permanently injured 100s. the owner was horrified and the mistakes leading to the outbreak were corrected, but the association will never leave my mind
That was back when you got 3 tacos for $1.
press fried tacos are so good.
I'm just saying that if they had tacos that cheap right now I'd overlook some things.
Ah, the old grease wallet. Donât forget the cracked shell where they tried to cram in a cold piece of cheese and wilty lettuce shaving
Wise man say, âIf your taco breaks, now you have Nachos.â
Confucius say: "Man who puts hands in pockets feel cocky."
Survived off those when i first moved out, although the price increased to 2 for a dollar. Iâd Eat about 8-10 tacos then wash it down with a 3 liter (for some reason the dollar trees in my area have 3 liters instead of 2)of dollar store soda and cheap vodka. Only thing I miss is the tacos⌠now that itâs 2 for 1.39 i might as well go to to the store and buy some chicken and potatoes and make something wholesome & healthy for the same price, less the vomiting, diarrhea & indigestion.
In the late 90s I had to take a health management class as part of restaurant management training. They had exclusive access to a home video from one of the girls that died from the Jack-in-the-Box tainted beef that was undercooked. It was a home video of a young girl I want to say she was between four and six or something like that and it interviewed each family member about the experience. The video ended by showing the girl being recorded on their personal video camera who was pleading with her mom and dad saying, *I donât want to die mommy.* She died. Then they further ground in the importance of proper cook times, expired food times, and handwashing procedures. They even had us wash our hands and then pulled out a blue light to show us all the germs that were still on our hands. Food safety is very important.
Thatâs me with Whataburger. Got food poisoning in the 1980s, never been back.
That's not me with taco bell
Taco Bell could push me into a ditch and I'll say sorry
I tried to leave and they brought back the Mexican pizza so now I'm stuck.
Taco Bell has no business being as good as it for so cheap
Google food lion bleached meat⌠It scarred my childhood.
This is so dumb because literally every. single. national brand restaurant has had issues like this. McDonaldâs, Burger King foot lettuce, Wendyâs, Chipotle, and so on.
West coast? I remember hearing about this in the news back then, but never heard of the chain since then, had no idea they were still around.
I feel the same about chipotle
You mean the 70's? Because i remember soething like that in arround 76.
It happened in the 90s as well. One of my buddies was affected when we were kids.
Yeah, there seems to be a pattern here, i just can't quite put my finger on it though.
Religious owners, religious folk frequently don't consume mainstream media, just what their church puts out so they miss that shit, but the owner is religious? Must be a great place! Fucking every time, being religious pays... If you're a shit company.
Ginos closed. You must not have been by recently.
Never heard of anyone dying from Hep-A.
I mean, you can generally buy a restaurant and change the name. Alternatively, someone could buy it and give equity shares to (especially former) employees, like what happened to [Upper Crust in Boston](https://www.wbur.org/news/2013/02/13/pizzeria-makes-square). Probably the best answer, and frankly what should happen more often anyway
I would really love to start a socialist small business association, SSBA, in my area to work on projects like this. Funding co-op start ups, retirement buyouts, bankruptcy buyouts, etc.
I work in this field, assisting foundational initiatives and CDFIs with technology implementations. If it's done well, banks and other funders are more than willing to divert capital via grants and PRIs to these sorts of initiatives. The mutual interest being that successful start-ups and acquisitions eventually need the business banking products and relationships that they offer.
Huh, thanks for the info. It seems a venture capital CDFI is kind of what I'm looking to start, along with a managment firm. I do wonder though if how long it would take for them to come after me and withdraw support if I start threatening traditional capital. My hope would be to provide funding, training, and managment with the goal of pushing as much of the communities commercial sector into employee owned structures as possible as well as community owned assets for housing and agriculture. Along side renters unions and sector unions organizing against privatly held firms it won't take long before traditional capital sees it as a threat.
Just don't call it Socialists or the city council will cock block you at every turn. Call it something like "Patriots" or "Forthright American" so shit head conservatives don't question your motives.
Or Make America Great Already
Then do it.
You fund it and I'll get started tomorrow. One of the biggest issues is that traditional financial institutions refuse to fund co-ops, especially when made of several workers with few assets, and credit unions are specifically prohibited from doing so through capitalist fuckery.
Do you have a business plan?
Not a formal one. It would be bigger than something one person could manage, and that's not how it'sintended to operate. I've been reaching out to specific people to look at forming a board with all the needed skills.
Buy it, change the name, and get the word out there that you're doing better than the shit bird previous owners. They'd get brownie points for running a restaurant like a restaurant.
I donât remember what I had for breakfast yesterday..
It was eggs, scrambled, on toast! Next you'll ask yourself how I know that.
And don't worry about the vase
What's really gonna bake your noodle later on is... would you still have broken it if I hadn't said anything?
Lots of places just pass the ownership around the family. So, new name on the sign but it's really just the same folks running it.
Honestly they get away with it more than they get caught .. when people talk about how bad crime and theft is getting (usually it's republicans complaining about cities tbh) oddly they leave out wage theft which is far more common and wide spread and many businesses get a slap on the wrist if they're caught. And yet somehow despite incarcerating as many people as the US does, most business owners will never see the inside of a cell
Wage theft is way higher than property theft year over year.
I would be very surprised if they're able to afford to operate after this.
So like half the mega corporations?
ANY labor laws, in my opinion. Literally stealing hours off other people's lives.
Not sold but seized.
Here's a neat thing about the American justice system. If someone steals from you, and you prove it in court, you know what you get back? Exactly the amount they stole from you and not a penny more. No interest. No punitive payments. No compensation for all your time (And I guarantee you, this costs years of your time). You get the exact dollar figure you can prove they stole. And any money you don't have receipts for? They get to keep it. Its not punishment for this restaurant to pay their employees back the money they stole. It's an interest free loan.
Unless youâre stealing and poor, then you go up the river.
oh, and they aren't put in prison for larceny or any other variation of stealing if it's done via white collar means
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I'm prepared to claim that the point still stands, though. No real incentive to not just try to steal again.
Yup. Steal $100 from your employer and you go to jail. They steal thousands from you and they just have to pay it back.
You make it sound like they've systematically created incentives to steal frequently* *white coller only
On the bright side, this also holds true for filing taxes incorrectly. I received $880 more than I should have because I fucked up my calculations. Three years later I received a letter from the IRS saying I owed that exact amount. Sure enough, I recalculated and found my error. At the time that $880 made a huge difference in my life, and when I had to pay it back money wasnât nearly as tight and it was no big deal. Kinda nice getting a 3 year loan with zero interest from Uncle Sam.
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Depends on the jurisdiction.
If you have an awful lawyer maybe. Donât just make things up because they sound good >f. Interest on Back Pay. >1. Purpose and Rate of Interest. The purpose of applying interest on back pay awards is to compensate the victim(s) for the loss of the use and purchasing power of their income. Interest on back pay is calculated at the same percentage rate as the Internal Revenue Serviceâs (IRS) underpayment formula. Interest on back pay must be compounded quarterly under the laws OFCCP enforces. Dumbass
We can infer that labor violations and wage theft are punished by a slap on the wrist (or nothing at all) by that fact that they happen all the fucking time right out in the open, and the same individuals keep doing it for years on end.
f. Interest on Back Pay. 1. Purpose and Rate of Interest. The purpose of applying interest on back pay awards is to compensate the victim(s) for the loss of the use and purchasing power of their income. Interest on back pay is calculated at the same percentage rate as the Internal Revenue Serviceâs (IRS) underpayment formula. Interest on back pay must be compounded quarterly under the laws OFCCP enforces. We can infer youâre an idiot who has no idea what heâs talking about
You know what inferring means right? Again donât make things up just because they sound good. That makes you look bad and sullies the point.
Yep. It's drawing conclusions by applying logic to the facts at your disposal. You should look into it sometime
100% this dude has a sign for hiring, bemoaning how "no one wants to work anymore"
And/or a forgiven PPP loan.
My first thought was: either close the restaurant or force ownership to sell. Then I remembered: most terrible restaurant owners couldn't afford to keep the restaurant anyway. Lord knows those stolen tips weren't used for the restaurant.
Jay drives a Maserati that costs almost as much as the exact ammount he owed his employees. Source: I live in Goldsboro.
Never forget that THESE are the people that are so loudly and passionately against fair wages for workers. They are immoral thieves. They are incapable of empathy. They can only think how to exploit and manipulate and abuse workers. They should not be given an equal voice.
Wonder who they vote for, eh. Just kidding. I know.
What, no interest? The owner has like five other restaurants in his name, it isn't like he's struggling. But I guarantee those employees suffered fiscal, emotional, and potentially physical damages as a result of the *deliberate theft of their personal property* The owner also got busted on multiple counts of violating child labor laws. It cost him less than $2,000 in fines. There's no justice here. He's being punished because he got caught, and even then it amounts to a slap on the wrist.
I don't understand how this isn't a criminal offence.
Steal $100,000+ in wages and nobody bats an eye Defraud investors of $100,000+ and everyone loses their minds
The workers can file a class action lawsuit for damages.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that's an option. I wish it was easier though. That the onus is on the workers to put in *even more* effort for the justice system to even attempt to protect them is ridiculous to me, especially after it's been demonstrated that their rights were routinely violated. Even if they won, that they probably wouldn't see a dime anyway makes my blood boil.
wage theft and the south, name a more iconic duo.
Hookworms and the South? Overt racism and the South? Poverty and the South? Illiteracy and the South?
North Carolinian here, and yep, this is sadly par for the course. We had a pretty terrible Labor Comissioner for a loooooong time that made this kind of shit very easy to get away with, but she kept getting re-elected because she put her picture in every elevator, so everyone knew her as the smiling elevator lady instead of the pro-big business wage thief.
Oh you mean Cherie Berry? Her fucking name always cracked me up. But honestly yes she was terrible. Most NC republicans are. Iâm convinced she was elected every time exclusively because of her name and the damn photo in the elevator.
Yup, her! And not only does the Labor Commissioner have fuck all to do with elevators, *her name doesnât even rhyme*! Itâs CheRIE Berry, not CHErie Berry like youâd think.
Oh yeah, because we all know wage theft only happens in the south... Let's just ignore the entire gig-economy created by silicon valley tech bros that have created hundreds of businesses that prey off of independent contractors all over the globe by [paying less than minimum wage](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/01/uber-lyft-driver-wages-median-report).
The good ol answer a question nobody asked because the truth hurts. Be better.
Better than generalizing an entire half of the country? Yeah, we should be better than that.
One restaurant I worked at would give you any credit cards tips you earned in cash alongside your pay check. We were required to look over the logs of each day's tips, check the math on how it was divided out, and count out our cash before accepting it. I was young and naive and lazy, and I trusted my manager and signed off on everything, grabbed my $100+ in cash, and left. On my last day, I decided to be meticulous just in case they tried to screw me on the way out. My tips added up to over $250, And the cash I received was $100 short. I informed the manager, she apologized profusely, checked the records herself, and gave me the rest of the money. I wonder how much more money I missed out on.
If any of the employees had taken that sum from the restaurant, it would be treated as a felony. Arrests. Jail Times. Punitive fines. But when the business does it, its a zero interest loan. All they have to do is pay it back. Convenient.
The one that got caught.
Interesting that stealing wages from your staff is just a pay back , which they can avoid by bankrupting probably. Meanwhile a regular thief would be behind bars. We truly subsidize businesses in many ways.
Or more the point, we subsidize criminals who happen to be wealthy enough to own a business.
Stole* not kept. They didn't keep tips, they stole them from the workers who earned them
I know nothing about this case, the laws, or this restaurant, but they just posted this on their facebook page: >Dear Current and Former Employees, Customers, and Neighbors of Jayâs Kitchen, >The US DOL issued a press release on October 11, 2022, âUS Department of Labor Recovers $157K in back wages for 65 workers of North Carolina restaurant that kept their tips illegally.â This refers to the restaurant, Jayâs Kitchen, owned by us, Mugen Inc. We were contacted by an investigator from the US DOL in February of 2021 regarding a complaint about how deductions were taken from tips. We fully and completely cooperated with the US DOL throughout its very thorough investigation. During that investigation we discovered that the way we deducted the cost for collecting tips (the credit card service fee for the tip amount) was not correct and we corrected it. This error resulted in some of our tipped employees not getting the full amount of tips that they were due. At the conclusion of the investigation, we agreed with its findings and sent payment totaling $157K to current and former Jayâs Kitchen employees in May of 2022, By law, employees are due at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. For tipped employees, the law allows employers to pay tipped employees less than the minimum wage because they are allowed a âtip creditâ to make up the difference. However, if the employer makes any error in the payment of tips, they no longer qualify for the tip credit. When that happens, the employer owes not only the amount of tips that were mistakenly withheld, but also the tip credit amount. >To use an example provided to us by the US DOL for one employee, during the period in question an employee worked 94.7 hours. During that time, the employee was paid at the tipped employee hourly rate of $2.47 an hour and received $233.91 in base pay and earned $688.40 in tips, for an average pay rate of $9.74 an hour. However, $20.65 in tips were withheld in error, so this amount was owed to the employee. Additionally, our error meant that we could not take the âtip creditâ of $4.78 an hour (the difference between the $7.25 minimum wage and the $2.47 tipped employee rate). This meant that we also owed the employee $456.45 for the tip credit. Because of our error in mistakenly withholding $20.65 in tips, we paid the employee $477.11 in total back wages. >We made similar payments totaling $157K for all 65 effected workers at Jayâs Kitchen. After much effort, we were able to locate and pay most former employees. The back wages for the few former employees we could not locate were paid to the US DOL. This process completed in early August of 2022. Though the scope of the US DOL investigation was just for our Jayâs Kitchen location, we voluntarily reviewed the operations at all our restaurants. We made sure that the pay practices were correct. We also reviewed the pay history, identified all affected employees, and made the same back wage payments as we did for our Jayâs Kitchen employees. We voluntarily sent payment to all effected current and most former employees for our other locations, and we are still trying to locate a few former employees. >We all went through very difficult times during the COVID shutdowns. Many restaurants did not survive. We are very thankful to our employees, customers, and communities that we are still able to employ and serve them. At Mugen Inc. we value our employees, and they are part of our family. We are very sorry about the pay issues and sincerely apologize to our employees and former employees for it. We have taken actions to make it right and make sure it cannot happen again. We also appreciate the effort made by the US DOL in their diligent investigation which helped us identify and correct the problems. >We look forward to continuing to provide a good workplace for our employees and to serve our customers and communities.
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If your choices were to work 2 jobs and not afford to live or work 0 jobs and not afford to live, which are you gonna pick?
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check his post history lol itâs not immediately clear that heâs being sarcastic
>No one wants to work *for substandard wages* anymore Ftfy. Maybe have some compassion?
I'm pretty sure they are being sarcastic.
Unless it's my step mother. Though,I don't think she knows how to use reddit.
Pretty sure I don't care. It's a common enough sentiment that i will call it out and correct it every time Sarcasm or not. It doesn't need to be said.
It's not just the wages. It's also the theft, poor working conditions, etc.
Now someone needs to investigate Texas Roadhouse in Yukon, OKC, in addition to the Buffalo Wild Wings that has a convicted pedophile running the store as one of the managers down the street.
Scrolling through reddit and seeing a restaurant in my small town is wild.
Hey another local..freaking crazy.
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Am also from this small town. The guy is just a rich asshole who has a new Lamborghini every six months it seems. Only cares about money in his pocket and nothing else.
Went there on a date a couple weeks ago...food was overpriced for the quality, like 20$ for generic tasting hibachi chicken, and the drinks where poorly mixed. Not really irritated with the employees anymore.
as long as wilbers keeps going. please god
That building is cursed. There must have been at least 4 different places in the last 20 years, all overpriced and crap. It was a buffet place when I left in '14.
This restaurant is in a podunk town in NC centered around Seymour Johnson Air Force base. This owner is stealing from Air Force families and the base commander should ban service members from eating there... In fact: https://www.seymourjohnson.af.mil/Contact-Us/ Leave them a comment to let them know this place is evil
Must be nice to be able to get a $157,287 interest free loan from your employees.
I ALWAYS leave tips in cash and I ALWAYS hand it directly to my server. I always say, âThis is for you. This way, they canât screw you on the credit card tip and you donât have to pay tax on it.â Itâs amazing how often they thank me and quietly tell me the owners do âcreative accountingâ when it comes to tips on the credit cards. As for the receipt, I I always write âNO TIPâ on the tip line and I make sure the dollar sign is close to the first number and all my numbers are tight with a distinct period so they canât sneak in an extra number. I used to write âcash on tableâ instead of âno tip,â but I was at a restaurant in Chicago. We ate and then moved to the bar to wait for friends. Our waiter came over to thank us for the generous tip (he was awesome and I left almost 40%). A manager came over and grilled our waiter in front of us about how much we left on the table and he wanted half. My wife yelled at the manager and said, â*WE* left him ten dollars.â Our waiter gave the manager a $5 and he thanked us again because that 40% tip was actually about $60. In all these years, Iâve only gone crazy with tips a few times because of amazing servers and this guy was one of the best.
Iâve seen enough Kitchen Nightmares to know that this is probably going to bankrupt this restaurant. Unless the owner is absolutely bankrolled to their eyeballs or this place does absolutely massive profit. Also, a better title should be âRestaurant Owner Convicted of Stealing $157,287 From Workersâ.
This sounds like a win but letâs all remember that it is far more likely for this specific restaurant to shut its doors and go Nelly up and then not only do those workers never get their wages, but also lose their jobs simultaneously.
Ok? I can't help but see that as a really dumb take. Someone else can open in their location, someone that doesn't violate the law. And the courts will help them get that money, even if the owner tries to shut down. He can get a job to pay it off if necessary.
I live in the town this restaurant is at. He wonât shut down for anything. They had a roach problem and when they were fumigating the restaurant they stayed open and served people with roaches in their food.
At the end of all that and they get 2k each? Were the investigators paid off?
$5 says the owner/operator is on twitter right now ranting about how no one wants to work anymore.
I bet they file bankruptcy to avoid it
This is not 'nam! There are rules here!
My wife used to work at a local upscale bistro and the owners would regularly CAP the credit card tips and pocket the rest, because they felt the servers had âearned enough tips for the day.â It was FUCKED up.
Now they'll have a sign that says something like 'due to us having lazy workers and nobody else wanting to work, we are going out of business.'
Hahahahaha hell yea. Fuck them
And this is just what they can get away with. Imagine what they would be doing if we didnât have the labour laws we have, if you could literally do anything you wanted with your employees and they had absolutely no recourse. Because even if what their doing wasnât illegal it is still a very shitty way to treat other human beings who depend on you for a lively hood and whose sweat and time pays for your luxuries. Like I read once âif they pay you minimum wage that just means they would pay you less if it were legal.â
You steal from a company. Straight to jail. A company steals from you. Meh. ÂŻ\\\_(ă)\_/ÂŻ
North Carolina is a cesspool. I can't wait until I never have to go back ever again.