Suspect unfair labor practices-- if so, how do I report?

Factual Questions
1

I am a server in a restaurant, and my employer basically has no shame about using me and my coworkers as cheap labor.

I understand that cleaning during a shift, while I am in rotation to receive tables, is part of my job, as well as reasonable before-shift and after-shift preparation/cleanup. However, what happened today did not fall under any of these categories.

We recently remodeled our building. We were supposed to reopen yesterday, but they weren’t finished yet, so they were shooting for today. I called this afternoon and asked my boss if we were actually opening, and he said “Yeah, I think we’re shooting for 5.” I was scheduled at 3, so I asked him when I should come in… I was expecting 4:30, since we come in at 10:30 when we open at 11. “Oh, just go ahead and come in at 3, we have some cleaning you can do,” he replied. I spent two hours cleaning baseboards, dusting shelves, polishing rails, and cleaning windows for $2.13/hr, while I had no prospect of having any tables or earning any tips to make up the disparity between my wage and the federal minimum. When a coworker of mine asked our boss whether we would be paid hourly since we weren’t serving tables, he said, “Yes. You will be paid hourly. $2.13 an hour.”

This is not an isolated occurrence. When he sees that we are slow and he should send people home, he assigns cleaning duties and won’t allow anyone to be cut until we complete them. The night before we closed, he made all of us stay and move all the tables and equipment in preparation for remodeling, which took us two hours at $2.13/hr.

Is this kind of thing legal? How can I find out? And if it isn’t, how can I do something about it? Is there some way to report it to some agency without hiring a lawyer? I’d love to, but I don’t know how I’d pay one. I’m just tired of being taken advantage of, and I can’t believe he has no qualms about using the people he pays the least to do the hardest work. I don’t want money out of it-- I just want him to learn his lesson, and stop treating his servers like slaves. Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

2

Texas Workforce Commission: http://www.twc.state.tx.us/ui/lablaw/lablaw.html
DOL Wage & Hour division: http://www.dol.gov/esa/contacts/whd/america2.htm#Texas

3

DOL Fact Sheet on tipped employees: http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/whdfs15.htm

4

Thanks for the links… I guess I’ll have to call one of those numbers to get any info about the legality of this, because the section on tipped employees in the text of the Fair Labor Standards Act itself is pretty brief.

5

Huh… the DOL fact sheet says that “The Act permits an employer to take the tip credit for time spent in duties related to the tipped occupation, even though such duties are not by themselves directed toward producing tips, provided such duties are incidental to the regular duties and are generally assigned to such occupations. Where tipped employees are routinely assigned to maintenance, or where tipped employees spend a substantial amount of time (in excess of 20 percent) performing general preparation work or maintenance, no tip credit may be taken for the time spent in such duties.”

I’m not really sure how to interpret it, though. How do they measure the percentages? Per shift? Per week? Per month? How could I even prove that I spent x amount of time cleaning for any given time period? I definitely spend far more than 20% of my time there cleaning on many days (I spent 2 hours cleaning today, and then they sent me home because they were closing the patio), but I don’t know how it averages out over a week or a month.

6

Sorry. I don’t know the answer. Definitely call the numbers and ask.

7

oh, no, I didn’t mean to direct that at you personally… it was more just me wondering aloud. thanks for your help, though. :slight_smile:

8

Wow, I know this is GQ and I’m not sure how to help you in terms of the legality, but as a fellow server I just want to say that’s really messed up.

My managers would never try that sort of crap - we do have to do sidework in addition to serving tables, but it takes 45 minutes to an hour max per shift, and I live in a state where we get paid minimum wage ($7.50/hr - thanks California) anyway. I would never stand for what you described. Good luck, you have my full support FWIW. :slight_smile: