Pittsfield's Patrick's Pub Owners Fined For Employee Tips
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The owners of one of the city's oldest taverns was fined more than $30,000 by the attorney general for taking tips from the waitstaff.According to a spokesman from Attorney General Martha Coakley's office, the owners of Patrick's Pub will have to pay $25,343 in restitution to 46 employees — ranging from as little as $33 to more than $2,600 — and have been assessed a penalty of $4,800.
The owners were found in violation by the office's Fair Labor Division after months of investigation into the operations since David, Micah and Bruce Powell took over the restaurant in May 2008 until December 2010.
David Powell said on Wednesday that the restaurant has "fully informed and properly compensated" all employees and have since changed its policies.
"Our policy had been designed to benefit all employees — waitstaff voluntarily tipped working management," Powell said in an email. "The attorney general notified us that tipping of working management is an unacceptable practice."
According to former employee Crystal Garneau, the owner had indeed told the staff that tipping management was optional but it was "implied" that not tipping would lead to less money overall.
Garneau said she had to tip out 20 percent of her evening's tips to the bussers and management for their efforts. The owners would receive an average of about $5 from each of the waitresses per night, she said.
Other former employees contacted recently said they feared not tipping would lead to "preferential treatment." Those who tipped management would receive better shifts, additional help and be allowed to leave work earlier than the others.
"You just got treated badly," one former employee said.
According to state law, employers are not allowed to demand, request or accept any payment or deduction from a tip or service charge given to staff by a patron.
Garneau said the tensions between employees and management started after the restaurant's renovations were completed and ownership instituted policies that were strict on the employees — such as taking the costs of broken glasses and drinks that were either poured wrong or sent back by the customer from the staff's pay and decreasing the employee discount.
The former employees agreed that those policies and "tensions" may have led to the initial complaint with the attorney general.
In defense of the restaurant, the former employees added that they have been told that the practice stopped after the complaint was made and that sometimes the owners "worked hard and deserved" to be tipped out.
