PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. — A former worker at a Downtown Flavortown restaurant in Pigeon Forge filed a federal lawsuit on July 15, saying the company behind the restaurant illegally paid him less than minimum wage.
He filed it against FACE Amusement Group Inc.
According to the lawsuit, Kevin Armstrong was a waiter at Flavortown, which meant he could collect tips as part of his work. The Fair Labor Standards Act allows companies to pay these kinds of workers less than minimum wage, as long as companies follow some specific rules.
Employers need to take a "tip credit," according to the lawsuit. It allows employers to include the amount employees receive from tips in with their wage calculations. Companies need to tell employees about this in advance.
As part of the federal law, employers need to tell employees the wage they pay tipped employees and the amount their wages increase due to tips. The law also requires all tips that employees receive must be kept by the employee, excluding tips contributed to a valid tip pool.
Armstrong alleges Face Amusement Group did not adequately tell servers and bartenders that they would receive under minimum wage. The document also alleges the company required employees to spend more than 20% of their time, for longer than 30 minutes at a time, doing non-tipped side work.
"Defendant maintained a policy and practice whereby tipped employees were required to spend a substantial amount of time performing non-tip producing side work, including but not limited to, general cleaning of the restaurant, preparing food for customers, refilling condiments, and clearing tables," the lawsuit said.
Effectively, the lawsuit said the company paid workers less than minimum wage for work that did not involve tips, hindering their ability to collect tips. That work included cleaning the kitchen, preparing salads, and cleaning bathrooms.
It was filed as a collective action on behalf of all current or former employees of FACE Amusement Group who were employed similarly to Armstrong. The lawsuit asks for a jury trial and the company to pay back wages, legal fees, damages and other legal costs.