Santa Clara, CA A $700,000 settlement has been reached in an employment class action lawsuit brought by two waitresses against Texas Roadhouse franchises, including one in Columbia.
In their lawsuit, waitresses Rachel Bontempi and Tiffany Tatham, servers at the Texas Roadhouse restaurant on Columbiana Drive in Columbia, alleged they and other tipped employees were required by the restaurant to pay a portion of their gross sales into a tip pool from which employees who would not normally receive tips were paid. The suit claims that this had the effect of diluting the amount of money servers were supposed to be paid.
The requirement that Bontempi and Tatham, who each made $2.13 per hour, share their tips with “back-of-the-house kitchen staff,” violated provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, the lawsuit asserted.
The class members will receive payouts calculated on a formula set out in the settlement and will be notified in coming weeks.
