Havana Club Owner ATL Night Life Group Hit with Unpaid Wage Lawsuit

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The plaintiff behind a proposed collective action filed in Georgia against ATL Night Life Group, LLC and one individual alleges the Havana Club operators are responsible for a host of wage and hour violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The plaintiff claims the defendants’ supposed failure to pay proper minimum and overtime wages stems from forcing waitresses to make telephone solicitations to clients and attend events off the clock without any compensation. Moreover, the lawsuit claims the defendants applied an illegal tip credit to waitresses’ wages by way of pocketing a portion of the workers’ tips for purposes that benefit only the business.

According to the case, the plaintiff worked as a tipped waitress for the defendants from June 2017 through January 2018. The plaintiff says she and those similarly situated were required to contribute to a tip pool from which the money would supposedly be used by the defendants to cover uniforms, management costs, cleaning, and “other improper purposes.”

“Havana Club’s unlawful use of tips and deductions from pay, along with forcing waitresses to work off the clock without compensation, caused the plaintiff’s and similarly situated waitresses’ wages to drop below the minimum wage,” the lawsuit insists.

Rounding out the case is the claim that the defendants failed to keep records of the hours worked by waitresses on Saturdays calling customers and/or attending private events.