Houston, TX: Landry' the parent company of Rainforest Café, is facing a possible employment
class action lawsuit brought by two servers at the Rainforest Café in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit alleges that Landry' wage and tips policies violate the Massachusetts Tips Statute and the Massachusetts Minimum Wage Act.
Specifically, the plaintiffs who are servers at the Café in Massachusetts, allege they are required to share their tips with employees who are not members of the wait staff. The plaintiffs further allege that because Rainforest Cafe has a policy and practice of wait-staff employees sharing tips with non-wait staff, the company is obligated to pay all the restaurant employees the full minimum wage of $8 an hour. However, the plaintiffs allege that servers at Rainforest Café make roughly $2.63 per hour.
The employment class action' two named plaintiffs are servers Monica Cormier and Holly Peterson, both of whom have worked at the Burlington Rainforest Cafe since about 1998.
The suit was also filed on behalf of all other wait-staff employees at the restaurant who have shared portions of their tips with non-wait-staff employees or who have been paid less per hour than the Massachusetts minimum wage.
Hillary Schwab, an attorney with the law firm Fair Work, is representing the plaintiffs.
