Feds: Sushi restaurant owners in Florida took servers’ tips, shorted employees $262K

FORT MYERS, Fla. — The operators of a sushi and hibachi restaurant in southwest Florida forced servers to illegally share tips with sushi chefs, managers and owners, a U.S. Department of Labor investigation has found.

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According to a news release, the management at the Ginza Japanese Restaurant in Fort Myers required 75 servers to tip sushi chefs, owners and managers based on the servers’ total sales. These actions made their tip pool invalid under federal law, according to WINK-TV.

The Labor Department said that the restaurant “could not account for $22,000,” and had no records to prove those tips were paid to servers or any other employee. The news release stated that the owners allegedly did not pay overtime when they should have.

“The employer also failed to pay a regular rate and overtime to dual-occupation workers who completed separate job roles<” the agency wrote in its news release.

The Labor Department said those actions violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and the agency recovered $262,322 in back wages and liquidated damages for the affected workers.

The money was distributed to 75 employees, an average of $3,497.63 per worker, The Miami Herald reported.

“Tips are the property of the employees who earn them. No employer has the right to keep any tips unless they are given directly to the manager who directly serves a customer,” Wage and Hour Division District Director Nicolas Ratmiroff said in a statement. “This case shows that when an employer handles tip pools improperly, they may no longer apply a tip credit which can lead to an employer owing employees significant back wages and damages.”

According to Florida corporation records at SunBiz.org, the restaurant is operated by Ginza Fort Myers, Inc. and has operated in Fort Myers since 2017. The president is Chang Ying Huang, state records show.

Restaurant management did not return a message left by the Miami Herald seeking comment.