The Feinstein Group, owners of The Black Pearl, The Living Room, and Sonder Social Club in Dunedin, FL just fired nearly their entire front of house staff at their fine dining restaurant, The Black Pearl, because they are going to be “restructuring” to a commission model that charges an automatic “service fee” and is only required to pay servers $1 an hour. In Florida, a “gratuity” is the property of the server and a “service fee” is the property of the restaurant. So under this new model, the tip that previously went to the server now goes to the owners, in addition to hourly wage being dropped to $1 an hour due to being classified as commission based employees. When staff tried to express their concerns, they suddenly lost their jobs. It is the same model that was implemented already at a the Living Room and Sonder and is the reason why many long time servers/bartenders are no longer there. Under this new model, the burden of operating cost is being shifted from the owners to the staff.
We were specifically told it was not based on performance but because they were restructuring to this new model and that they did not believe we would be a good fit any longer. The only ones who got fired were the ones who expressed their concern over new pay rates.
My coworkers and I are now jobless, two of which are mothers with multiple children and another is a current grad student who’s getting married in a few weeks. We just want our story heard.