Last week, six restaurant workers sued the Front Room in federal court, seeking $160,000 in unpaid wages and damages. The complaint lists eight specific grievances including: illegally sharing tips, failing to inform workers of "tip credit" (the system that explains why restaurant workers do not make minimum wage), requiring work off the clock, not providing overtime pay, failing to provide breaks, and failing to withhold taxes. Sexual-harassment and gender-discrimination claims that were made at a December 1 protest outside the Front Room were not cited in the lawsuit.

Owner and executive chef Harding Lee Smith has dismissed all the claims publicly, saying that Restaurant Opportunities of Maine (ROC-Maine), the national group organizing the workers here in Maine, has a more insidious agenda — to take down a successful restaurant. Others who have come to his defense suggest that the national branch of the ROC is interested in unionizing restaurant workers in Portland. The ROC is backed by the Southern Maine Labor Council, the regional union group, but its stated goal is not unionization. "Our agenda is to improve conditions for restaurant workers," ROC organizer Steven Emmons said in an interview on Monday. In a follow-up e-mail, he said, "ROC is definitely not trying to unionize workers. That is a common misconception of what we are doing. We are only trying to fight against exploitation in the restaurant industry and educate workers about their rights."

The lawsuit came after several employees sent a letter to Smith, asking for a sit-down meeting to discuss variations of the aforementioned gripes. The response, regardless of whose story you believe, was unsatisfactory. At that point, the employees, with ROC-Maine's aid — the organization had previously reached out to hundreds of local restaurant workers in an attempt to obtain more information about their working conditions — filed suit, claiming violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Maine Human Rights Act, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, among other state and federal laws.

"The laws — they're according to whoever's the boss," says Eva-Laura Mercedes Ramirez-Wisiackas, a former Front Room bartender, who says she contacted ROC-Maine after she witnessed a co-worker get "wrongfully fired."
(Please click link to read full story)