Lynn's Paradise Cafe Tells Waitresses To Show Up With A Hundred Bucks or They're Done

Lynn's Paradise Cafe, a roadfood favorite, is in hot water with the service industry and possibly the State of Kentucky. Their waitresses have to show up with a bank of a hundred bucks or they're done, fired. They fired a gal and now it's a big mess. The story http://www.sw4j.kyjwj.org/

If these things are true...OY, what an operational train wreck.

Wow!  Those complaints were pretty intense.  I hope it's not true.

This would make them independent contractors, not employees?
Is that standard practice for most waitstaff?

This would make them independent contractors, not employees?
Is that standard practice for most waitstaff?

I hate to hear this.  I love this place but with all the publicity comes greed, etc and I'm wondering if that's going on here.

I spent thirty-five years working for a company that regularly "managed" their employees by using harassment and threats of undeserved firings ( and there were lots of firings ), so I have no doubt that the allegations made by LPC's employees are true. I 've signed the petition protesting these injustices and I encourage other roadfooders to do likewise.

Reading elsewhere on the Internets, it sounds to me that the waitresses in question were regularly stiffing the other serving staff (bussers, bartenders, foodrunners) by claiming they had no cash to share at shift-end and pocketing their entire gratuities.  This is supposedly due to the majority of tips being paid on credit cards.  It wasn't clear why card payments are not available to waitresses as cash at end of their shifts.
 
So it was not management screwing the waitresses that is the issue here.  It is the greedy waitresses failing to share gratuities with others on the serving staff that have earned a share of the waitresses huge haul.  No laws were broken, they are/were at-will employees.
 
Petitions are worthless.  If you don't approve, don't eat there.
 
Winners - Remaining Waitresses and Other Waitstaff
Losers - Fired Greedy Waitresses

Independent contractors? Really? Please people.These people are paid less than minimum wage, because tips are very important. If, and I mean IF, they signed a wierd contract stating such, than they have no cause. Otherwise, thats just wrong.

I don't know, Ann. I've never worked at a food place before, but nowhere else I've been an employee have I been required to contribute my own $$. JRPfeff's explanation above yours seems reasonable.

The story has been on all the local stations here in Louisville all day. It will continue as it moves from a food-servers organization (advisory only, not a union) to a legal investigation for possible labor law violations by the State.   So far the story has presented the only the employee's side with Lynn's GM saying they were reviewing their personnel policies and not commenting on individual complaints.

It is hard to tell from the available info how bad, if at all,  the real situation is. There are several employees involved..not just one or two...but  Lynn's  Management has always prided itself on it's unorthodox operation, and when reg's are not enforced evenly the violations eventually catch-up wih the owners.
We are watching this one closely as we like to visit Lynn's with visitors also.

Um, I think I responded to your post. Or your question..So, your problem with my response, is, BBQ Boy?

I don't have a problem. I was trying to figure out why they'd have to have cash in their pocket, is all. Don't most waitresses make change out of the register?

In many food service and bar operations wait staff will have a personal bank to make change. It's not at all unusual.

It's not a personal bank issue.

A percentage of customers pay & tip via credit card. Restaurants usually release those funds immediately to the wait staff...and from there the wait staff tips-out.

In this case it seems as though the tips are not released...and the wait staff must tip-out of pocket while they wait for the credit card tips to become available from the restaurant.

From reading the five cases in the "Service Workers for Justice" page, it's apparent that the situation with the $100 bank / tips is just a small part of the harassment and mistreatment that the employees have been dealing with. Assuming everything mentioned in these five cases is true, the KY State Labor Relations Board needs to investigate this operation. No worker should ever have to put up with this kind of nonsense, and I'm speaking from unpleasant personal experience here. And while I have eaten at LPC in the past, I don't intend to again.      

I dont know how to post a link but if some would like to post it you can find it at   wave3dotcom

It's not just showing up with a hundred bucks. It's showing up with a hundred bucks every shift...until the tips are paid on a paycheck.

as an aside, the waitresses I know in Austin pull in 7k per year, as wage, from their job/paycheck. That's if they work full time. Obviously the good ones make a lot more via tips but any way you slice it, waiting tables is tough work.
 
"Tip outs" have been declared illegal in some states.

Lynn's Paradise Cafe accused of abusing workers, unfair policies - wave3.com-Louisville News, Weather & Sports
   LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - One of the most popular restaurants in town is under fire by the people who work there.
On Friday, Kentucky Jobs with Justice and former and current employees of Lynn's Paradise Cafe started their campaign, hoping to get things changed. They say there are numerous problems from not being notified of their shifts, to being harassed, to a new policy that requires servers to carry $100 cash on them at all times so they can tip out to co-workers.
The stories Kentucky Jobs with Justice Executive Director Flaco Aleman has heard from Lynn's workers are endless. "Just the amount of disrespect and abuse, verbal abuse… brought tears to my eyes," Aleman said.
Aleman, several volunteers and current and former employees are the ones responsible for flyers left on cars surrounding Lynn's Paradise Cafe. They're on a mission to educate. "If the restaurant workers are fed up where they're ready to take action, it's more than just a case of a disgruntled employee who's mad over a simple issue," Aleman said.
They're all coming forward after two people were fired last week over a new policy. "It was January 2^nd I was terminated," said a former employee who wanted to remain anonymous. "That was the day the new policy for $100 for each server went into place."
continued........
with embedded video

I've never worked in a restaurant in any capacity so maybe some fellow RFers who have done so can answer this question:  Why would the restaurant not supply the tip cash themselves each day when the waitstaff comes in?  It seems to me like that would be the restaurant's responsibility to have that cash available and not that of the waitstaff.

They don't want to front the cash money on pending transactions...any given day/night.

They think it's a privilege to work in the restaurant and any server unwilling or unable to adhere to the policy will easily be replaced.

Having used a Credit or Debit card to pay for a meal & tip numerous times, I've never understood why my statement would show the price of the meal immediately on my account and then several days later, the total changes to include the tip. Can someone in the business explain how & why it works that way???????????

The bill total is verified by the credit card system when it runs through. It's pending as a hold until the final charge (including tip total if included) is finalized as a charge total.

JRPfeff


Reading elsewhere on the Internets, it sounds to me that the waitresses in question were regularly stiffing the other serving staff (bussers, bartenders, foodrunners) by claiming they had no cash to share at shift-end and pocketing their entire gratuities.  This is supposedly due to the majority of tips being paid on credit cards.  It wasn't clear why card payments are not available to waitresses as cash at end of their shifts.

So it was not management screwing the waitresses that is the issue here.  It is the greedy waitresses failing to share gratuities with others on the serving staff that have earned a share of the waitresses huge haul.  No laws were broken, they are/were at-will employees.

Petitions are worthless.  If you don't approve, don't eat there.

Winners - Remaining Waitresses and Other Waitstaff
Losers - Fired Greedy Waitresses

 
So what you're saying is that this story isn't true and the other stories around the internet about the waitresses being greedy are true.  I'm not sure which is true, but how are you so sure that the version that you brought up is true?

NEWS   NEWS   NEWS
 
THE LOUISVILLE TV-32 (CBS) REPORTED THIS MORNING AT 5:30 AM THAT LYNNS PARADISE CAFE HAS CLOSED PERMANENTLY.  A SIGN WAS POSTED LATE LAST NIGHT SAYING THAT AS OF 2230 ON 11 JANUARY 2013, LYNNS PARADISE CAFE WOULD BE CLOSED AND THE MANAGEMENT THANKED THE CUSTOMERS AND LOYAL EMPLOYEES FOR 22 YEARS OF SUPPORT.
 
So the reasons may be what they may be. but the fact is the Roadfood landmark is no longer open for business.

Aww Shucks, no more pajama parties and French Toast for Me. If they stay closed, I wonder what they will do with ALL their STUFF. I always had a good meal and a good time when I ate there.

This thread is an example of Internet Vigilantism.  Some of you immediately accepted the story on face value, even signing the online petition, while, thankfully, some of you said, "hey, not so fast".  I'm not trying to pin all of it on RF because there seems to be multiple sites that have responded to the "blood in the water".
 
In the time that I've been reading and posting  here at RF, I've learned some things:  Give some of you an opportunity to jump to conclusions, you're lined up and ready to jump.  If there are two sides to a story, you're ready and eager to take a side, regardless of any actual supporting facts.  I guess you could say RF is a microcosm of life.

I don't know what the real story is, and perhaps in time there will be an accurate and verified account of what was really taking place at the restaurant. 
 
Why did the owners close it?  Maybe, it's because the story is true.  Maybe, it's because of other reasons.  Hopefully, we'll find out. 

The actual facts include Lynn Winter confirming the new policy of the requirement for wait staff to arrive on-shift with $100 cash.

That's all that is needed to know that it's illegal to have such a policy.

CCinNJ


The actual facts include Lynn Winter confirming the new policy of the requirement for wait staff to arrive on-shift with $100 cash.

That's all that is needed to know that it's illegal to have such a policy.

 
That may very well be the full extent of the problem, but it may not be.  If it is, obviously, they are in the wrong and the problem should be rectified, with legal sanctions, if needed.  Call me crazy, but I'm willing to sit back and wait for ALL the facts to surface before I cast aspersions either way.
 
I do know from experience that whenever the jokers at Jobs With Justice show up, nothing is ever as quite clear cut as it appears to be.