A restaurant in Oregon said it would fire servers who didn’t turn in cash tips, a DOL investigation found. The restaurant said it instead gave staff more reliable income by paying double the minimum wage. Cooks were also not being paid overtime, according to the DOL. The restaurant was ordered to pay $375,000 to the affected workers. Loading Something is loading.
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A sushi restaurant in Oregon threatened to fire servers who didn’t hand over cash tips, a Labor Department investigation has found.
The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division found that Bonsai Teriyaki and Sushi in Medford, southwestern Oregon, had collected and withheld cash and credit card tips earned by seven servers, and “warned them that they would be fired if they did not turn in tips on time.” cash”.
This violated the Fair Labor Standards Act, which stipulates that employers may not keep tips from staff “under any circumstances.”
In addition, Bonsai Teriyaki and Sushi failed to pay overtime wages to four cooks and sushi chefs, the DOL said.
The restaurant was ordered to pay a total of $375,233 in back wages and liquidated damages to the 11 affected workers, in addition to paying a fine of just over $5,000. Each affected employee will receive between $16,000 and $93,000, the DOL said.
The restaurant said in a Facebook post Friday that it paid staff twice the average hourly minimum wage, which it said gave staff reliable earnings instead of “variable tip income” and allowed them to qualify for car loans, home loans and approval for apartments. . He said he had also provided these salaries during the pandemic, when he could only offer takeout and therefore few customers left tips.
Bonsai Teriyaki and Sushi said it had accepted the DOL’s findings and was now in “full compliance.”
“Due to the move to minimum wage plus tip, we have lost a number of long-term employees who were better served and preferred the higher fixed wage over tips,” he said.
The restaurant added that it had “always” paid overtime wages, but that some of the time cards had been destroyed.
Source: news.google.com