COLUMBUS, Ohio ( WCMH ) — The franchise operator of 11 Roosters restaurants in Ohio, including one in Columbus, has agreed to pay more than $500,000 in a settlement with some 1,800 workers who claimed they were underpaid.
A class action lawsuit was filed last March in federal court on behalf of Roosters workers who were employed by Chillicothe-based franchisee We Be Wings. The lawsuit asserted that workers being paid as tipped employees were made to do things that should have qualified them for higher wages as non-tipped employees.
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Servers and bartenders were made to scrub toilets and clean other areas of the restaurant. They also saw their pay reduced if customers walked out or if alcoholic drinks were rung up wrong. And overtime was calculated as time-and-a-half at the tipped wage rate rather than at minimum wage, the lawsuit said.
Although helping with cleaning is legal in some cases with tipped employees, it’s not if the work is seen as taking up more than 20% of an employee’s time. The lawsuit also said some paycheck deductions were improper and that overtime was miscalculated.