a strange dine and dash

[Cia]

alrighty... i did the homework, and what i can say is that... there is a fine line to trot when they do take it from our pay(tips) from a dine and dash.

so here is the low-down. they can not take more than 25% of one weeks pay, which as a server, is guaranteed minimum wage... in one garnishment, with no more than one wage garnishment per week. the law does not state what is, and is not punishable.

Finlayfox, that is for court ordered garnishments ie. child support, restitution and etc. http://www.dol.state.ne.us/legallaws...ment%20Law.pdf

What you're looking for are deductions from wages http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs16.pdf
"Some examples of items which would be considered to be for the benefit or convience of the employer are .... financial losses due to clients/customers not paying bills... Employees may not be required to pay for any of the cost of such items if, by so doing, their wages would be reduced below the required minimum wage or overtime compensation."

What your boss needs to do is have the dine-n-dashers arrested for theft so he can sue them in court.

[finlayfox]

so that is why i didn't find anything, i didn't look into federal law. thank you for doing that for me, i am going to print it out and show it to not only my managers but the other servers as well.

[EricKei]

The other side of it is that in most US states you can be fired at any time for any reason that isn't covered by protective laws. I've heard of servers flat out refusing to pay and managers dropping the subject, because they know it's an illegal request and I've heard of servers being fired for "other reasons." I don't know what would happen if you could prove that was your sole reason for being fired.

I believe that's what is known as "at-will employment" -- it most likely varies by state, but I believe the general definition can be summed up as "Employees [without contracts] can quit any time they like with no further obligation, with or without cause, and employers can fire them at any time, with or without cause." -- Under that, they technically don't NEED to give a reason for firing someone.

[Auto]

I believe that's what is known as "at-will employment" -- it most likely varies by state, but I believe the general definition can be summed up as "Employees [without contracts] can quit any time they like with no further obligation, with or without cause, and employers can fire them at any time, with or without cause." -- Under that, they technically don't NEED to give a reason for firing someone.

This is correct.

Servers can't be made to pay for dine and dashers. But management is certainly free to fire them for not paying closer attention to their tables.

And management is within its rights to offer a server the choice of paying for a dine and dash in return for not getting fired.

[Tutorgal]

I believe that's what is known as "at-will employment" -- it most likely varies by state, but I believe the general definition can be summed up as "Employees [without contracts] can quit any time they like with no further obligation, with or without cause, and employers can fire them at any time, with or without cause." -- Under that, they technically don't NEED to give a reason for firing someone.

Well, no, but they are still barred from firing people for certain reasons. You can fire people with no given cause, but if it turns out that, for example, all those people happen to be of a certain race, then you get into legal issues.

Since it is illegal for restaurants to force a server to pay for a dine and dash, I was just pondering what would happen if a significant pattern of firing servers for refusing to pay could ever be shown. Not that I think enough would refuse at once place to for that to ever be the case.

[Dips]

This is correct.

Servers can't be made to pay for dine and dashers. But management is certainly free to fire them for not paying closer attention to their tables.

And management is within its rights to offer a server the choice of paying for a dine and dash in return for not getting fired.

However, if they fire you without cause you can collect unemployment if you qualify.

[Jester]

In the better places I've worked, they will not make servers pay for dine and dashes....unless the server has a lot of them. And frankly, that is not something I have a problem with. Why? Because the better servers don't HAVE a lot of dine and dashes. Period.

Look, there are always going to be sketchy people. Even the best servers can't prevent the occasional incident. That is understandable, and most decent managers understand that and accept that. But it is not coincidence that the lesser servers tend to be the ones with more dine and dashes.

As for the original post, I have had similar things (without the dashing part) happen, where people asked for a pen so they could sign their check. I often had to point out that I would need their credit card first....generally it was just a momentary brain fart on their part.

It was worse when I worked at the hotel, though, because there was space for people to sign their check to their room, and we would occasionally have people do just that...even if they didn't have a room. How these people expect the restaurant to collect money from their credit card, I don't know, but then, they aren't the brightest folks around.