The U.S. Department of Labor is trying to claw back nearly $300,000 in back wages for servers from Hall’s Factory Restaurant management.
According to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Wayne, the Department of Labor says Factory Restaurant manager Luke Hall regularly collected tips from the restaurant’s servers in a pool but didn’t disperse the money legally.
Federal law requires tip pool money to be distributed to restaurant employees who regularly receive tips for their work.
But that money went to cooks and others within the restaurant who were not normally paid tip wages, according to court documents.
Hall’s servers were paid between $2.13 and $2.65 an hour and the tips were to make up the difference between that amount and the federally required minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
Hall is also accused of requiring servers to perform work off the clock and to purchase their own uniforms, further diminishing the actual amount of money they were paid.
While Hall changed his business practice, federal officials accuse him of failing to pay the money withheld earlier, to the tune of $290,000 due 30 employees.
A message left for Hall’s attorney was not returned
.