Former Server Hits FL Café with Unpaid Wage, Gender Discrimination Suit

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

A former server and cashier has filed a proposed class action against El Tamarindo Café and its owner claiming employees were not paid full minimum and overtime wages, with some being subject to gender discrimination.

With regard to its claims of wage and hour violations, the lawsuit alleges the defendants unlawfully forced servers to pool their tips with managers who normally do not receive tips while paying the workers an hourly minimum wage minus the “tip credit.” The deduction of this tip credit reportedly caused employees’ wages to fall below the federal minimum.

In addition to the illegal tip credit claims, the plaintiff says the defendants failed to pay servers their weekly paychecks on time, with some being issued as many as six weeks late.

In addition to claiming wage and hour violations, the lawsuit alleges the defendants discriminated against the plaintiff and other female staff members by favoring male employees. The complaint says that a female server sued the defendants in June 2014, after which the restaurant decided to replace all female servers and replace the workers with males. Rather than terminating the female employees, the case alleges, the defendants “demoted all of the female servers to positions of cashiers and hostesses, which are less desirable positions because serves earn substantially more money.” After complaining to management about losing her server role, a job the lawsuit describes as “a rewarding and well-paying position,” the plaintiff says she was and similarly situated workers were subject to a hostile work environment “permeated with derogatory and sexist remarks.”

Upon returning from an allegedly pre-approved vacation, the plaintiff says she was fired for “abandoning her job.” The lawsuit claims this was a retaliatory action that violated Florida whistleblower protection laws.