Not sure if this is an appropriate sub to seek advice for this, but there are several things happening at work that I believe range from unethical to flat out illegal and I'm not sure what my best course of action is. Also on mobile so sorry if this comes out fucked. Questionable practices are:
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No breaks, I work shifts anywhere from 5-12 hours and not only am I not offered breaks, I was refused when I asked for one halfway through a 12 hour shift. I was fed the line: “we don't offer breaks but you can go out for a smoke or sit down to rest during down time, the culmination of these short rest periods often amount to more than a 30 minute break anyway and you get paid for them.” However it is often so busy I don't get 30 seconds to rest let alone 30 minutes…
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Tips are not declared. The boss doesn't make anyone declare their tips at the end of shift, this is to avoid being taxed on them by her own explanation, this almost seems like a pro rather than a con except for…
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Our salaried manager takes all the tips. Our manager will usually have 1-2 employees on till throughout the day but then put herself on till for the last few hours until close, she then takes the entire tip jar for herself at the end of the night since by then, she's technically the only employee taking orders. This is pretty fucked up as is, but I've worked at other places where I was told salaried managers could not legally take employee tips.
What is my best path to reporting this? I know I can go to the labor board over the break thing, they'll have time clock records showing employees working up to 12 hours without clocking out. I could report the tip thing to the IRS? It's a delivery based food business so seeing that none of the employees have received a single tip ever would be a huge red flag. However, I'm not sure it amounts to enough of a problem to get them involved. I personally know someone that reported a boss to the IRS and was told it wasn't a big enough problem to launch an investigation, the phrase “small potatoes” was allegedly used.
The main problem with reporting it is also the fact that I can't afford to lose my job right now, if I report this and get fired in retaliation I'm fucked, but I also just got hired on as part of management (I'm still hourly) so if I report anonymously could I get in trouble for having knowledge of these issues and not doing anything? If I did get fired for reporting is there a winnable case against the company? Any advice on reporting or what evidence I should try to collect to cover my ass would be appreciated.