I was a Chef at a bar/restaurant that was established from the ground up. I had gone to my first interview, and at the second one I had to prepare food for the owner and their friend. So, I do that and during the interview we discuss the salary. They asked which I preferred and obviously I said hourly. We agreed upon 25$ an hour. After that I sent them a text message asking how many hours they were expecting of me. I told her 50 hours is easily doable (again I was under the assumption it was hourly). They agreed to those hours and that salary. The day I started the GM told me the owner was going to discuss my salary with me. In passing the owner says “Im going to put you on as salary and I'll take your hourly and base it on 40 hours” My paychecks reflected 40 hours and even though we were not open I had so much stuff to do that didn't require me to be at the restaurant itself. They had ranted about a work life balance and that they would transition to me to 4 day weeks. After that brief conversation it made sense to me why I was making what I made. We opened and I noticed I was racking up the hours and after one week of that I told myself I wouldn't do it again. (I ended up making less than my dishwasher was).
I go to make the schedule today and in the middle of it (they were watching me input this live) they call to tell me they want me to be there from open to close most days which would put me far over my hours. I brought this up and presented facts and they shut it down completely. Their reasoning was that this was a new business and it took time. They said being a chef means working those shifts and its just the belly of the beast. Insisted it may be too much pressure for me. So, I quit and I told them where they could shove it.
Now, my phone broke shortly after starting and they had a disgruntled friend give their phone back to them. They offered to give me the phone and I offered to pay it twice but they insisted on not taking my money. I got my personal number transferred to their plan because I was absolutely stupid and didn't think anything of it. They are now obviously demanding the phone back and I already told them they would get tracking for it in the morning (no post on Sundays!). Since, they have threatened to not pay me because of the phone I'm pissed off. Do I have any options? Shitty people like this just get away with so much and frankly its frustrating. This isn't some small mom and pop place. This was a bar and upscale dining in a major city. I will also add this I've had the owner on multiple occasions smack my ass, press their body against me, and demand that I hug them. Ive documented all of that.
Do I just let them get away with all of this or use what I know and do something about it?