Bar Faces Worker Lawsuit
Four longtime bartenders at a Duval Street bar claim their supervisors kept thousands of dollars in tips and failed to pay them minimum and overtime wages, according to a federal lawsuit filed Thursday.
Fat Tuesday Key West bartenders Anthony Roberts, Charles “Chachi” Fricke, Layne Thrasher and Andrea Marion claim in the lawsuit that over a 14-month period, the management failed to pay them:
- Time and a half for overtime;
- The full $4.23 hourly minimum wage; and
- Their share of pooled tips, into which each contributed 2 percent of their own tips. They claim managers kept the money instead of giving it to the employees, according to the lawsuit.
Other employees not named in the complaint were similarly not paid properly or were not given all the tips owed to them, according to the lawsuit.
How those employees may be affected by the lawsuit is not clear.
Roberts and Fricke claim they were fired after they complained to the management and other employees.
The lawsuit seeks their rehiring and compensation for all the alleged damages, including lost wages, promotions and attorney fees for Todd Shulby, who did not return emails or phone messages left at his Davie office.
The complaint lists as defendants Fat Tuesday co-owners James Reed and Jeff Gunther, Fat Tuesday/Key West Limited Partnership, and Millennium Southernmost Inc.
Reed and Gunther did not return phone messages seeking comment, and Fat Tuesday Manager Troy Anderson said the company had no comment Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King will hear the case.
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