Lawsuit Alleges Illegal Tip-Pooling by Las Vegas Restaurant

A group of 20 restaurant employees, including servers, bussers and bartenders, has filed a federal class action alleging a Las Vegas beer house violated state and federal wage-and-hour laws by requiring them to share their tips with managers and other non-tipped workers.

Hofbrauhaus Las Vegas allegedly collected all tips from servers, bussers, runners and bartenders; retained a portion of the money for itself; distributed some to workers who do not customarily receive tips; and then passed on the remaining money to the tipped employees, according to the complaint.

The plaintiffs say Hofbrauhaus paid them less than the minimum wage and made up the difference with the tips it collected and then distributed to employees.

The tips "misappropriated" by Hofbrauhaus and its corporate affiliates could not be considered service charges because they were not reported to the Internal Revenue Service as part of the restaurant's gross receipts, the complaint says.

This practice violates the Fair Labor Standards Act, the plaintiffs say.

Hofbrauhaus also violates a state law requiring that all tips and gratuities belong to the tipped workers and barring the restaurant from helping itself to the money, they say.

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, also alleges violations of a state law governing unjust enrichment.

The plaintiffs say the defendants, Hofbrauhaus owner BVT HBavaria L.P. and two corporate affiliates, operate as a single enterprise.

They are asking the court to award them unpaid wages, liquidated damages, compensatory damages and punitive damages.

They also want the court to order the defendants to furnish an accounting of their tips.

Another recent high-profile tip-pooling case was in the news in March, when a California judge ordered Starbucks to pay its baristas $100 million for using some of their tips to pay shift managers.

California law forbids an employer and its "agents" from using tips intended for servers.

The judge concluded that shift managers are "agents" of Starbucks because they "supervise and direct" the baristas.

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The plaintiffs are represented by M. Lani Esteban-Trinidad in Las Vegas and Steven Blau of Blau, Brown & Leonard in New York.