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Sep. 30, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Battle on
tip sharing on tap
Hofbrauhaus hit with
lawsuit by 19 former workers
By ARNOLD M.
KNIGHTLY
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Nineteen former employees of the Hofbrauhaus Las
Vegas are suing the owners over a tip-pool
arrangement they claim violates the federal Fair
Labor Standards Act.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of
Nevada, claims servers, busboys, food runners
and bartenders of the German beer hall were
forced "to participate in an invalid tip pool"
that paid gratuities to company managers who
kept a "substantial portion" for themselves and
distributed other parts of the pool to workers
"who do not customarily" receive tips.
The remaining funds were then distributed to the
plaintiffs and their co-workers, the lawsuit
alleges.
A breakdown of how the gratuities were
distributed by percentage was not described in
the lawsuit.
The lawsuit, which seeks class action status, is
asking for an undisclosed amount in compensation
for unpaid wages, compensatory damages and
punitive damages.
Hofbrauhaus Las Vegas founder and managing
partner Stefan Gastager could not be reached for
comment Monday.
Lani Esteban-Trinidad, the local attorney for
the workers, said the group asked Nevada Labor
Commissioner Michael Tanchek to pursue the case
before filing the lawsuit, but he declined.
Tanchek said his denial of the plaintiffs'
complaint was a procedural step necessary for
the lawsuit to be filed.
"They want to take it to court, and I didn't
want to get in the way," said Tanchek, who said
his office wanted to determine if the plaintiffs
could afford an attorney.
In addition to the allegations about how the tip
pool was divided, the lawsuit claims that the
Hofbrauhaus, which is at Paradise Road and
Harmon Avenue, lowered the plaintiffs' base pay
below the federal minimum wage, then applied a
tip credit to make up the difference, a practice
prohibited by state law.
Service charges applied to patrons' bills
misappropriated the workers' tips, the lawsuit
charges, because the fees were not reported to
the government as part of the company's
receipts.
Additionally, the money did not show up on the
plaintiffs' W-2 forms as wages.
New York-based labor attorney Steven Bennett
Blau is assisting Esteban-Trinidad on the
lawsuit.
A similar lawsuit was filed two years ago
against Wynn Las Vegas over the company's
tip-pooling plan. That lawsuit has been in limbo
since the spring.
The seven-member Supreme Court heard arguments
April 8 from attorneys for the resort and the
two dealers who sued the property after it
changed its tip-pooling policy in September
2006.
The appeal was filed after District Court Judge
Douglas Herndon rejected arguments that the
hotel-casino's dealers are contract employees
and that the new policy, which reclassified some
supervisors and allowed them to share some of
the tip money that had been given exclusively to
dealers in the past, illegally changed
employment agreements.
The justices could uphold Herndon's dismissal of
the lawsuit, which was brought by dealers Daniel
Baldonado and Joseph Cesarz, or they could
overturn the lower court decision. The justices
could also send the dispute to the labor
commissioner to resolve.
Contact reporter Arnold M. Knightly at
aknightly@reviewjournal.com
or 702-477-3893.
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