Thursday, May 28, 2009
(05-28) 14:45 PDT DUBLIN -- Eight former Hooters employees filed a class-action lawsuit today against the restaurant chain known for its provocatively dressed servers, saying management systematically stole their tips at four Bay Area restaurants.
"It's disgusting. I mean, these girls are making minimum wage, and here (senior managers) are dipping into their tips," said plaintiff Dina Partridge, 29, of Pleasanton, a former assistant manager at the Hooters restaurant in Dublin.
"Those are extra wages for them, and they're being taken advantage of," Partridge said at a news conference in Oakland.
To bolster their claims, Partridge and other women who formerly worked as "Hooters Girls" at the Dublin restaurant displayed an enlarged photocopy of a form that was titled, "Slush Fund."
The suit said the restaurant's general manager, Donald Speckhals, maintained the form "to record and enforce the improper tip pooling." The money that was originally intended to go to bus boys, bartenders and hostesses was instead diverted to Speckhals, a kitchen supervisor and other restaurant managers, the suit said. Speckhals could not be reached for comment.
Each form included handwritten notations showing the amount of money diverted each day and included a place for managers to sign their initials to approve the allegedly improper transactions, Boltuch said.
Similar schemes were in place at Hooters franchises in San Francisco, Fremont and Campbell, the suit said.
Boltuch said he had never seen "a more flagrant violation ... of California employment laws, especially the slush fund allegations. I have to admit when I first received a document that was entitled 'Slush Fund' that Hooters kept on a daily basis, I almost thought it was a fabrication."
The 90-page lawsuit was filed in Alameda County Superior Court against Hott Wings Inc. of Modesto, which operates the four franchises; its president, Nick Trani; his wife, Shirley Trani, the chief financial officer; their son John, the firm's secretary; and several other officials, including Speckhals. It does not name the national company.
The lawsuit, which seeks class-action certification, also accused managers of illegally requiring employees to purchase and maintain their uniforms, failing to provide 10-minute and lunch breaks, and illegally requiring them to "cover" for cash shortages or for customers who skip out on their bills.
Boltuch said he didn't know whether managers were aware that the alleged tip diversions were improper. "But they knew what they were doing" with respect to the other claims in the suit, the attorney said.
Matthew Hawkins, a Modesto attorney representing Hott Wings, did not immediately respond to requests for comment today.
"It made you just feel like you were always taking things out of your pocket to do your job, and I am personally a single mother, and I need every penny that I make," said plaintiff Jessica Rose, 23, of San Ramon as her 2 1/2-year old daughter played nearby at the news conference. "And to have to pay for all the different things. It all adds up."
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