Miami Beach’s Prime Italian Hit with Former Busser’s Wage and Hour Suit

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A former employee of Uno Restaurant Associates, Inc. has filed suit against the company and an individual owner over claims that the defendants failed to pay their tipped employees properly. The plaintiff says he worked as a busser at the defendants’ Miami Beach restaurant, Prime Italian, and was paid a less-than-minimum hourly wage plus tips. The suit argues that the defendants were not permitted to apply a tip credit to his pay if they did not meet certain requirements, such as allowing employees to keep all their tips and not obligating them to spend more than 20 percent of each day performing non-tipped duties. The plaintiff claims his employers violated both requirements, arguing that they paid non-tipped employees out of the tip pool and required the plaintiff to spend a significant amount of time performing non-tipped "sidework" that was unrelated to his tipped responsibilities.

The plaintiff says he formally complained to the defendants regarding their allegedly unlawful pay practices and was terminated in retaliation.