Legal Sea Foods Faces New Class Action Lawsuit Over Shared Tips
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Boston Globe] By Katie Johnston - March 23, 2015 -
Legal Sea Foods has been hit with another class-action lawsuit over tips, this time by wait staff in Kendall Square and Chestnut Hill who say that their gratuities were shared illegally with oyster shuckers.
According to state law, only employees who serve food or drinks to customers, or clear their tables, are entitled to tips. Requiring waiters and bartenders, who are paid a minimum of $3 an hour, to share tips with oyster shuckers violates the law, the complaint says, and therefore the restaurant chain owes servers and bartenders the full minimum wage, which rose to $9 an hour this year.
Oyster shuckers were previously paid the lower minimum wage that tipped employees receive, but Legal Sea Foods ended the practice at most of its restaurants within the last two years, and started paying shuckers the full minimum wage, according to lawyer Hillary Schwab, who is representing the plaintiffs.
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