Alleged Tip Pooling Practices at Leyla’s Fine Lebanese Cuisine Subject of Class Action

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In a proposed class action filed in South Carolina, a former employee of Lebanon Delights LLC—which operates as Leyla’s Fine Lebanese Cuisine in Charleston—claims the eatery and its owner ran afoul of federal and state labor laws by running an illegal tip pool in addition to illegally applying a tip credit to workers’ wages. The defendants violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by failing to inform the plaintiff and similarly situated workers that “they intended to treat tips as satisfying part of their minimum wage obligation,” the case reads. The plaintiff, a former server, claims he and similarly situated employees were paid less than the hourly minimum wage as a result of throwing their tips into a general pool distributed at the end of each shift by the individual defendant and her husband. The lawsuit notes proposed class members were never informed of the amount of tips collected in each pool.