GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A Grand Rapids restaurant is being sued by the U.S. Department of Labor over back wages not paid to over two dozen employees.
The Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division investigated The Saucy Crab in Grand Rapids and says they violated several provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act and withheld over $75,000 of back wages from 26 employees.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan against The Saucy Crab Grand Rapids LLC and its owner, Jixi Qui.
The department alleges that The Saucy Crab owes a total of $75,402 in back wages to 26 workers.
After an investigation by the labor department, they found that the company had violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by doing the following:
- Included the owner who served as manager, along with cooks and dishwashers in a tip pool customarily used for servers and bartenders.
- Made illegal deductions from servers’ pay for uniforms, aprons, name tags, and lost items such as crab crackers, scissors and oyster forks, resulting in employees failing to earn minimum wage.
- Failed to pay servers time and one-half their cash wage in periods when the employer claimed a tip credit. The employer should have paid time and one-half the employees’ regular hourly rate.
- Paid cooks a flat rate, denying them overtime for hours over 40 in a workweek.
- Failed to maintain any payroll records for at least two cooks.
- Failed to pay one cook any wages.
- Did not maintain accurate time records for employees from at least August 2020 until October 2022.
“Our investigation found the owner of the Saucy Crab restaurant abused the rights of their employees by illegally taking tips from customers intended for servers and bartenders and by denying servers, cooks and dishwashers their fully earned wages,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Mary O’Rourke in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
“The Department of Labor will fight to protect the rights of restaurant industry workers who, in addition to being among the nation’s lowest paid people, may be vulnerable to wage theft because they might not know their rights and protections or be reluctant to exercise them,” O'Rourke added.
The department is also seeking another $75,402 in liquated damages for employees, as well as an injunction barring Qui from violating the FLSA in the future.
The Saucy Crab is now closed in Grand Rapids, the restaurant still has three locations in Illinois and one in Kentucky, according to their website.
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