Workers at four Memphis restaurants, including Earnestine & Hazel’s, sued the owners to recover alleged unpaid minimum wage and overtime.
In March, an attorney filed three separate suits against Local in Memphis, the parent company of The Vault, Earnestine & Hazel’s, The Paramount, and The Backlot Sandwich Shop. The suits claim three different classes of employees — servers and bartenders, managers, and one cook — are owed unpaid wages, legal fees, and more. They all list Local in Memphis co-owner Tyson Bridge as the point person for the company.
In the suit involving the servers and bartenders, the suit claims the company did not tell the employees they were working under a tip-compensation plan. This system is a way for companies to include an employee’s tips toward the employer’s minimum wage requirements, according to human resources company Paychex, Inc.
Attorneys for the servers and bartenders said the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) puts “strict requirements” on companies using the tip credit system. In the case of Local in Memphis, these “requirements were not met.”
For one, the employees were not told by the company they were working under the system. For this, the servers and bartenders were working for $2.13 per hour, the required minimum wage for tipped employees, instead of the $7.25 regular minimum wage. The employees are entitled to the difference for those hours worked, the lawsuit says.
Also, these servers and bartenders were made to do “dual...
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