It was discovered that the Florida-based Japanese restaurant Ginza Fort Myers Inc. has refused to give tips to its servers. The restaurant has since been ordered by the US Department of Labour to pay thousands of dollars in back wages and damages.
The Wage and Hour Division investigators found that the restaurant forced its 75 servers to tip sushi chefs, owners, and managers depending on their overall sales, according to a recent news release. The Fair Labour Standards Act has been broken, rendering the tip pool invalid.
Additionally, the company did not pay overtime or the standard rate to dual-occupation employees. In a news release, it was claimed that the restaurant could not account for $22,000 in tips that they had withheld and lacked documentation to show that the tips had been given to any employees.
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The US Department of Labour received $262,322 in compensation for the damaged servers as a consequence of the investigation. Joshua Salinas, the manager of Ginza Japanese Restaurant, affirmed that the problem had been fixed.
Employers are permitted by the Fair Labour Standards Act to mandate that eligible workers “pool” their tips. However, tips from the pool cannot be given to managers, employers, or supervisors. The workers who receive tips are thought to own them.
Employers are expected to abide by federal labour laws, and the US Department of Labour is committed to taking appropriate action against those who don’t.
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