How many more complaints until a change?
Servers from Waffle House locations across the country claim owners owe them $46.8 million per year after allegedly robbing them of earned wages, Fast Company reported.
In a federal wage theft complaint, servers are telling their stories of experiencing what they claim as stolen wages during shifts. Melissa “Kat” Steach, who serves at a Marietta, Georgia, location, says her shifts come at odd hours. Steach works as a tipped cashier and server but also pitches in for untipped work, including mopping floors, cleaning toilets, and scrubbing pots and pans, prior to clocking out at 7 a.m. The complaint, filed by the Union of Southern Service Workers (USSW), alleges franchise owners save between $15.6 and $46.8 million a year with tipped employees performing untipped tasks without compensation.
The Service Employees International Union affiliate labels the untipped work as constituted wage theft, since federal law allows employers to pay tipped workers less than regular minimum wage.
“And what are they really doing with it? They are not supporting their workers. They can’t keep screwing us around. We’re here. We’re worth it.”
Steach is pushing for a change as she requested being formally trained as a cook for better pay, but has been denied by managers claiming they don’t have time. The option she was given was to work more double shifts — resulting in performing more untipped work for tipped wages.
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Source: Black Enterprise
