WAGE THEFT
Texas BBQ chain failed to pay $867K in shared tips to workers

A small barbecue restaurant chain in Texas failed to pay $867,572 in tips and overtime pay to more than 900 workers. Photo courtesy Roanoke Hard Eight/Facebook

April 23 (UPI) -- A small barbecue restaurant chain in Texas failed to pay $867,572 in tips and overtime pay to more than 900 workers, the U.S. Labor Department said.

Roanoke Hard Eight, which has five locations near the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, failed to pay their tipped employees all of their tips, the Labor Department said in a statement.

Restaurant executives, however, said that the situation stemmed from a misunderstanding over the Wages and the Fair Labor Standards Act that went into effect in 2019. The law prevents employers or managers from keeping tips received by workers.

Officials said hourly managers had received some of the tips earned by servers and were not paid the correct time-and-a-half rate for all hours worked above the 40-hour workweek.

"Roanoke Hard Eight violated the law by including managers in their tip pool. By doing so, the employer denied tipped workers some of their tips and managers proper overtime wages," said Jesus A. Valdez, the Labor Department's wage and hour district director in Dallas.

"As businesses struggle to find people to do the work needed to keep operating, employers would be wise to avoid violations or risk finding it even more difficult to retain and recruit workers who can choose to seek jobs where they will receive all of their rightful wages."

Matt Perry, the chief operating officer of Roanoke Hard Eight, said in a video message that the restaurant was "shocked and taken aback" by news reports of the recovered back wages and said the situation was a misunderstanding over federal labor laws.

Perry said that the restaurant had been audited by the Labor Department which had found that the restaurant's policies were not in compliance with federal law.

"We immediately took steps. We worked with our caseworker and also Director Valdez to make sure that our tip program was in compliance with the Department of Labor," Perry said.

"After that, we paid back all the employees of the tip-share that they were entitled to. We also took it a step further and also gave raises to our management team to compensate for the tip-share lost and as of August 2021 we are fully complaint."

Perry said the restaurant made sure with Valdez that it was still compliant with federal law after the Labor Department had released its statement.

"This was put to rest for us more than eight months ago and so, again, we were just shocked today but we wanted to take time out to tell our loyal customers and our employees and our staff at all our locations that we love you guys," Perry said.

"You guys are the heartbeat of what we do every day and we are very appreciative of the support and love that everybody has shown us over the last couple of days."