A former server has filed a lawsuit against Artisanal Brewing Ventures (ABV) alleging the craft brewery platform violated federal and state labor laws by undercompensating tipped employees and requiring them to do untipped and unpaid tasks, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina and first reported by Law 360.
The lawsuit alleges ABV violated the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act and Pennsylvania Wage Payment Collection Law.
The class and collective action complaint was filed on behalf of Laura Elizabeth Bell, a former bartender at Southern Tier Brewing Company’s taproom in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The lawsuit says Bell worked four to five shifts a week at the taproom from August/September 2018 through July 2023. Her hourly wage rate was $2.83, plus customer tips.
Bell claims that she was not properly compensated for all hours worked and ABV forfeited the tip credit for front of house staff by requiring untipped tasks in which employees should have been paid the full minimum wage.
The lawsuit alleges that ABV (aka Craft Revolution LLC) paid tipped employees less than the mandated minimum wage by requiring front of house staff to perform numerous tasks with no possibility of generating tips.
The suit also alleges tipped employees were required to perform “off-the-clock” work prior to shifts, with employees’ time not recorded until the taproom opened to the public.
In Bell’s case, the lawsuit says she was required to arrive 15 minutes before the start of her shift to do uncompensated work prior to the taproom opening, and she didn’t go on the clock until the taproom officially opened. Bell estimated that she spent about a third of her total shift performing side work that couldn’t be tipped.
Additionally, the lawsuit alleges managers allegedly clocked out employees at the end of the night while they were still performing required tasks at the end of their shifts.
Text messages included as an exhibit in the complaint also show a manager telling tipped workers that “pulling the kegs in at night is now the bar responsibility” and suggesting workers unfamiliar with operating a pallet jack to ask a manager.
The lawsuit alleges managers would collect the tip bucket along with the cash register drawers for accounting at the end of the night. Managers would then advise the bartenders if there were deductions from the tip pool to account for cash shortages in their registers, as well as how much was being allocated to server assistants and food runners. Bell claimed that about once a week some of her tips were being used to cover cash shortages.
Bell filed the lawsuit on behalf of herself and similarly situated people in a collective class as well as a Pennsylvania class. The lawsuit says Bell and the collective class are seeking unpaid minimum wages for hours worked in which the defendants failed to comply with provisions of the tip credit and pay mandatory minimum wage, unpaid off-the-clock work, and damages.
In Bell’s case, the lawsuit argues that she is owed $4.42 for every hour worked in which she was only paid a sub-minimum wage of $2.83.
The lawsuit claims ABV’s taprooms shared common labor practices, and employees transferred among the taprooms in other states and managers from other taprooms performed training.
ABV operates taprooms in North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Virginia. Its brands include Victory, Southern Tier, Sixpoint and Bold Rock.
UPDATE July 12, 1:35 p.m. CT: ABV shared the following statement: “Craft Revolution, LLC d/b/a Artisanal Brewing Ventures (“ABV”) is aware of a lawsuit filed by a former employee against ABV in the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. ABV does not comment on pending litigation. However, ABV’s policy is to fully comply with all applicable federal, state, and local wage-and-hour laws and regulations in the jurisdictions where it conducts business. ABV will respond to the allegations in the lawsuit through its legal pleadings in due course.”