Abbster Enterprises LLC operates the franchised Buffalo Wild Wings in Martinsburg.
Michael Rodgers and Lauren Collins were employees of Abbster and claim it failed to pay them and other similarly situated severs and bartenders all earned minimum wages, according to a complaint filed July 7 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia.
Abbster has a policy or practice of paying servers and bartenders at its BWW restaurant sub-minimum hourly wages under the tip-credit provisions of the FLSA and violated the FLSA by failing to inform its servers and bartenders of the tip-credit provisions, according to the suit.
The plaintiffs claim the defendant violated the FLSA by its policy or practice of requiring servers and bartenders to perform non-tipped work that, even if it were related to their tipped occupation, exceeded 20 percent of their time worked in one or more individual work weeks.
The defendant also violated the FLSA by requiring servers and bartenders to return a portion of their tips to the restaurant, including to cover the cost of customer walkouts and cash drawer shortages, according to the suit.
The plaintiffs claim Abbster was aware or should have been aware that federal law requires it to pay severs and bartenders full minimum wages and violated the FLSA by not following federal law.
Rodgers and Collins are seeking judgment in the amount of the owed minimum wages for all time worked by them and similarly-situated servers and bartenders; and liquidated damages in an amount equal to the amount of unpaid minimum wages. They are being represented by David M. Hammer of Hammer Ferretti Schiavoni.
The case is assigned to District Judge Gina Groh.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia case number: 3:16-cv-00106