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So I work in this restaurant that does some questionable work. For one, we don't give out coin change. For example, your bill is $12.66 and you give us a $20.00, we're supposed to give you back $7.00 unless you complain and then you get $8.00.
thats not my issues thought, this is my issue, we do carry out orders and those are taken and closed out by the host/hostess. At the end of the night they do a cash report and turn it in with all the cash and credit card receipts of the day. Well when people pay with credit cards they sometimes leave tips. Well it is procedure at this restaurant that those tips collected from take out orders are to go to the expeditor which packs the food (which is me, currently). However, I've noticed for some time (because the hostess will show me the credit card slip that says a customer left a tip) that the amount collected in tips by the hostess is not the amount I am given by management. On average I would say I get if any 4 or 5 bucks.
In these two past days Sunday and Monday I collected in tips 37 bucks because I told the hostess to print me a copy of any credit card slip that leaves a tip.
Also, if I tell them "oh Im missing money" and they tell me oh well now you have to report your tips...since I work hourly, how does that affect my paycheck?
There is case law on this situation in Florida. Not a restaurant, but a high-end resort spa. The spa owner was keeping a percentage of tips. The employees sued and won, some got well into the five figures!
The enployer is NOT allowed to keep tips. They can require them to be pooled or split, but not with the owner, only wiht other staff.
As far as how tips will affect your check, are you making stnadard minimum or tipped minimum? ($7 or #3-something?) If you are making standard minimum, then they could tell you that if this is a tipped position, they can knock your pay down to tipped minimum, although they do need to guarantee your tips will be enought to pay you minimum wage, or they need to make the difference.
Also 8% of each check needs to be reported as tipped income on your paycheck--and taxed. Technically you'll need to report all tips to the IRS. Not doing so makes it look like you are living far less than you are which can hurt you when you go to finance a car or home by the way.
As far as the change goes, that's not a labor department issue, and not really illegal. I know of a local convenience store that doesn't do pennies, it's allrounded up or down to the nearest nickel, and I'm sure it all works out in the end.
Skimming tips is a huge issue. This needs to be taken very seriously.
Before you go to the labor department, consider a few steps first. Is management the same as the owner? It is possible that you have a dishonest manager doing this unknown to the owner. In which case, go to the owner first.
If it is the owner, collect proof before you go to legal routes. People are going to want copies of the tip reports, the payouts, etc. Otherwise it is simply your word against another's, which is MUCH more difficult to prove.
Annerk is exactly correct as to reporting tips. It is your legal responsibility to do so. If you report nothing, it is assumed at 8%, and reported anyway.
You try to keep people's change and won't give it to them unless the customer complains?
That plus the tip skimming makes for an unethical restaurant.
I look forward to the day that a customer files a police report against this restaurant for stealing from customers, 34 cents at a time.
Giving the customer their change after a complaint, even if it is rounded up to the nearest dollar, does not excuse the theft. If I shoplift batteries from Target and they complain to me and I say "OK, you can have them back" they are not going to tell me to have a nice day and please come back to Target again soon.
A similar scam is when someone skimmed fractions of a penny from bank customers by rounding their interest credited down to the nearest penny and keeping the change for himself. All those fractions of pennies added up to thousands of dollars and a prison term.
In my opinion, the theft from customers is much more serious than the tip skimming from employees.
I have been working for a laboratory for 2 years now, when i got hired i signed a form stating they do random drug tests but it neve said how the employees are randomly choosen, so the first time i got tested i was negative for all types of drug abuse. Now a year goes bye and he ends up hiring my sister. After a few months he suspected drug abuse so he tested her and she came out positive for marijuana, the next day he tested me and once again i was negative. I asked why he tested me and he said it's random which i found weird and felt he was discriminating me because my sister was positive. Now a few months pass and he drug tests my friend and she comes out positive for marijuana so once again he tested me? this was last week and i just feel so violated and now dont even have a drink on my weekends i dont know what to do and feel very discriminated that he thinks just because my frinds do things i am is this right? and what should i do?
I think he's using some common sense. "Random" doesn't neccessarily mean pull a name out of a hat, it means without warning. I'm not sure how you feel "violate" for taking a simple drug screen. Don't blame your boss, blame your friends and relatives.
I think he's using some common sense. "Random" doesn't neccessarily mean pull a name out of a hat, it means without warning. I'm not sure how you feel "violate" for taking a simple drug screen. Don't blame your boss, blame your friends and relatives.
True, but being tested for drugs right after a friend AND a relative were tested positive at different times would not be looked at favorably by the Dept. of Labor in many states, especially when it happened twice that way. While it's true if you have nothing to fear from a drug test you shouldn't worry about failing it, there are issues about how your employer is now wrongly looking at you unfavorably and with suspicion beyond what is normal and appropriate, especially when saying when asked that it was simply "random" during 2 suspicious circumstances. In that case, the employer would probably have a better stand legally just coming clean and saying it was due to "suspicion", since "random" after two such circumstances would be legally shaky. There's sometimes a fine line between common sense and discrimination, especially from a legal standpoint when the issue is that it makes the workplace newly "uncomfortable" for an employee beyond what is considered reasonable as well as compared to the past. I think drug tests have a vital purpose and am very against people who fake them, but people have rights too.
Also, if this degree of frequency and "suspicion" is causing the employee to stop legal things on his/her own time like having an occasional drink they would have a case as well.
I'm not sure it's worth fighting about per se, but if you see any signs of other overt discrimination from it I would at least look into your options.
I have been working for a laboratory for 2 years now, when i got hired i signed a form stating they do random drug tests but it neve said how the employees are randomly choosen, so the first time i got tested i was negative for all types of drug abuse. Now a year goes bye and he ends up hiring my sister. After a few months he suspected drug abuse so he tested her and she came out positive for marijuana, the next day he tested me and once again i was negative. I asked why he tested me and he said it's random which i found weird and felt he was discriminating me because my sister was positive. Now a few months pass and he drug tests my friend and she comes out positive for marijuana so once again he tested me? this was last week and i just feel so violated and now dont even have a drink on my weekends i dont know what to do and feel very discriminated that he thinks just because my frinds do things i am is this right? and what should i do?
Don't work where your pot-head sister works.
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