Bocas House Coral Gables Pegged with Wage and Hour Lawsuit

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Bocas House Coral Gables, LLC and an individual with control over the restaurant have been hit with an amended proposed collective action in which a former server seeks to recover allegedly unpaid wages.

Recently removed to Florida federal court, the lawsuit states the plaintiff worked approximately 32 hours per week for the defendants from August 2017 through April 2018 for $5.50 per hour plus tips. At the beginning of his employment, the plaintiff was reportedly informed that he would need to contribute roughly 30 percent of his tips into a tip pool to be split among the restaurant’s support staff, such as [dessert] workers in the kitchen, the suit says.

The plaintiff alleges that, in truth, about 35 percent of his credit card tips were withheld and distributed among the defendant’s employees. Within that 35 percent, the suit continues, around seven percent went to kitchen [dessert] workers, with another seven percent going to managers. Moreover, the plaintiff claims that in addition to supposedly unpaid minimum wages, he’s owed pay for approximately three hours of off-the-clock work performed each week.

The suit goes on to say the plaintiff’s counsel in mid-March 2018 mailed the defendants a Certified Demand Letter requesting remittance of the supposedly unpaid wages. According to the case, the plaintiff’s work hours were quickly reduced thereafter, from around 32 per week to roughly 20, until the plaintiff was subsequently suspended without pay for two days for “pretextual reasons” before being fired in alleged retaliation.