Tuesday, May 12, 2009, 10:09am EDT
Former waiter sues Pigall’s owner Martin WadeBusiness Courier of Cincinnati
A former waiter at the now defunct restaurant Jean-Robert at Pigall’s is suing its owner for taking his tips.

A class-action complaint filed last week in federal court in Cincinnati claims Martin Wade and the restaurant company DCHW Inc. that operated Pigall’s violated federal wage and hours law. The lawsuit seeks an award of back pay equal to the difference between the hourly rate paid to the wait staff and the federal minimum wage for every hour they worked over the prior three years.

It also wants an award of all tips that waiters were required to put into a common “tip pool” that were allegedly paid to administrative and managerial employees at Pigall’s.

The lawsuit was filed by downtown Cincinnati lawyers Marc Mezibov and Susan Lawrence on behalf of plaintiff Daniel Scott Strange and other former waiters at Pigall’s.

According to the complaint, waiters had to contribute a portion of their tips to a pool that was then distributed to certain non-tipped employees. Waiters were paid an hourly rate of only half the federal minimum wage rate – a practice that’s common at restaurants.

According to Strange’s complaint, Pigall’s required waiters to contribute an amount equal to 17 percent of their gross sales into a tip pool. Those tips were to be divided up between the workers on each shift, including one share for the maitre’d and another share for the assistant maitre’d. Strange claims that their responsibilities included administrative and managerial duties – scheduling and supervision of waiters, and purchasing wine, for example.

Pigall’s used the money from the tip pool to offset its own salary obligations to the maitre’d and assistant maitre’d, Strange alleged. By doing so, the restaurant “inappropriately participated in the tip pool” and misappropriated waiters’ tips in violation of federal wage and hours law, the complaint alleges.

Pigall’s closed earlier this year after racking up losses every year since it opened, according to Wade. It’s scheduled to reopen in June as Twist Restaurant. It is part of Wade’s Relish Restaurant Group that also includes Relish Catering, JeanRo Bistro, Lavomatic Café, Greenup Café and Chalk Food + Wine.