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When is Favoritism in the Workplace Illegal

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  • 05-10-2017, 02:04 PM
    SBBartender
    When is Favoritism in the Workplace Illegal
    My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: California

    I work at a bar in California, and one of the owners seems to be playing favorites. It seems as if there are certain employees who receive favorable treatment and it has now begun to boil over into our tips. It is widely believed by other employees that some of the female servers get preferential treatment over others in the restaurant. One girl in particular, with no prior serving experience, has been allowed to take all large parties with guaranteed gratuity and wasn't tipping out the bar for drinks poured. When this was brought to the owner's attention, there was a huge push back as she didn't want to back up the proper tip-out protocol because the gratuity that was being paid out was off the total that this girl had sold and she was the one that "was doing all the work."

    However, the other night, we had a large party that ended with a $2,000 bar tab. $1,500 was from the bar directly, and $500 was from the servers. We printed out an itemized receipt detailing the revenue generated by the bar and submitted it to the owner so that she could allocate tips as the tab was house-charged to the restaurant. Typically, tips are allocated based on how much revenue you were responsible for, but on this particular party, the owner split tips evenly between 2 bartenders and 2 servers (both servers are favorites of the owner) and another employee overheard the owner say, "the bar will get tipped out however I tip them out." Does this seem like favoritism? And if so, is it legal for an employer to do this?

    It seems like she is withholding tips that rightfully belong to the bar...
  • 05-12-2017, 07:51 AM
    Mr. Knowitall
    Re: When is Favoritism in the Workplace Illegal
    If a tip pooling policy is changed, it should be changed in advance with proper notice to employees, not after-the-fact. Your employer should pick a consistent tip pooling policy, to be changed only upon proper advance notice.

    Favoritism itself is not illegal. Your boss can give a specific employee the best shifts and tables, and your remedy is to seek work elsewhere.
  • 05-12-2017, 10:52 AM
    eerelations
    Re: When is Favoritism in the Workplace Illegal
    Workplace favouritism can be illegal, but only if it's based specifically on things like race, gender, age (but only over 40s), religion and/or disability. However, nothing in your post indicates that the favouritism that you're describing is based on any of these things.
  • 05-12-2017, 12:55 PM
    Mr. Knowitall
    Re: When is Favoritism in the Workplace Illegal
    Quote:

    Quoting eerelations
    View Post
    Workplace favouritism can be illegal, but only if it's based specifically on things like race, gender, age (but only over 40s), religion and/or disability.

    I would not personally characterize illegal discrimination based on a protected category as "favoritism", but sure... illegal discrimination is illegal.
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