Former employees have filed another class-action lawsuit alleging tip-and-wage theft against some of Lexington’s most prominent restaurants.
The latest allegation is against Bluegrass Hospitality Group, on behalf of former employees of Malone’s, Harry’s and Drake’s in Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina.
Bluegrass Hospitality Group (BHG) owns prominent Lexington restaurants including Malone’s, Malone’s Prime Events & Receptions, Harry’s, Aqua Sushi, Drake’s and OBC Kitchen.
The lawsuit was filed in May in federal court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
In the latest lawsuit, three plaintiffs were former employees at Malone’s locations in the Hamburg and Palomar centers. Another employee worked at the Drake’s location in Owensboro.
The lawsuit alleges that the company violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Kentucky Wages and Hours Act by failing to give servers and bartenders the legally required notice about the use of tips for their wages.
The complaint explains that BHG-owned restaurants have compensated their employees below the federal minimum wage while requiring them to perform non-tipped duties for more than 20% of their workweek.
Some of these tasks include sweeping, mopping, rolling silverware and other side work where employees are not tipped. Federal law prohibits employers from receiving tips if an employee performs tip-support work and duties that do not generate tips for more than 20% of the workweek.
According to the lawsuit, bartenders and servers have to work nearly an hour to set up and close the restaurants, clean and prepare tables and organize their departments.
The employees also had to involuntarily give their tips to other employees, the lawsuit alleges.
This class action lawsuit is the latest filed against the BCR, after another former Drake’s employee from Tennessee filed a separate federal lawsuit in April.
A spokesperson for BHG was not immediately available for comment.
Lawsuit is the latest against Lexington restaurants
David Garrison, the attorney for the former employees, has experience – and success – with these cases in Kentucky federal court.
Garrison was the lead attorney for a previous lawsuit against Tony’s Steak and Seafood. As a result, the restaurant Tony’s Steak and Seafood agreed to pay $1.5 million as part of a settlement involving employees at locations in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio.
The employees alleged that the restaurant violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by forcing them and other tipped employees to participate in a tip pool in which portions of the tips were given to salaried management members, according to federal court documents and information about settlements.
Three class action lawsuits were filed against Tony’s in the three states, which were later merged into one federal lawsuit. John Hartley, a former bartender at Tony’s, was the original person to file suit against Tony’s.
The Tony’s settlement resolved claims for 79 servers in Kentucky, 42 servers in Ohio and 52 servers in Indiana, said Garrison, lead attorney in the two cases. In total, the award for Kentucky plaintiffs was $546,237 – more than the settlement amounts of Indiana and Ohio combined. The average compensation for a class member participating in the server settlement is $5,250. According to court documents, the largest settlement is over $35,000.
Following the settlement of the Tony’s lawsuit, a lawsuit against Jeff Ruby’s was announced in February for alleged wage and tip theft. According to the lawsuit, the defendants took a portion of the tips earned by servers and bartenders and shared the money with back-of-house employees “who did not earn the tips and who did not interact with customers.”
