Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Gunslinger on November 07, 2004, 04:11:08 AM
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OK Gents,
My wife is a professional bartender (I say that because it is an honorable profession that she's done for the last 8 years) anyhow, this new bar she started at she's ran into a snag and I'm asking anyone who knows anything about California bar laws or a site that might get me started to help in my search.
Story: The owner of the bar were my wife works has turned into a di**head. The bartenders all split tips BUT the owner started counting the bartenders tips. There have been several occasions were the owner has gone and "made change" or taken money out of the tip jar without talking to the bartenders at all.
example: One night the bartenders ALL after split made about $400 cash each. Twas a good night :) . after that the owner decided he was the one that was going to divvey up the tips and no one has made that since then.
To me this is an injustice. The FDB's would agree with me that a bartenders tip jar is solem ground and not to be touched by ANYONE! The point I'm trying to make here is that is there any law in the state of California that would cover bartenders in this situation.
To me the owner seems like scum and is suposedly selling his bar in a couple of weeks but it all boils down to a matter a principle. A bartender complains about an owner rumaging through the tip jar gets fired. That's wrong.......what can we do?
I really don't solicit much from this group as far as personal help goes but I really do hold the bunch of you in high reguard. If anyone knows any recources or starting points were I could start my own research please let me know.
Thanks gents
EDIT:
Also this guy figures out the tips for all the credit cards. He's the olny one that does it and no one else. My wife and all the other bartenders KNOW that their tips don't add up but they are afraid of getting fired. To me it sounds like this guy is guilty of fraud.
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wow........................
I bartend part tiem for a friend..I have been a Banquet Sales Manager for 4 years..
That is insane....only the bartenders touch their tips. Yes they tip out the barbacks..cocktail servers ect...but.//What..the owner is physically grabbing the tip jars?....WTF?..that is not right...
The bartenders need to say..umm..no ..we count our own..
Couple of questions..
1) Are the bartenders counting out there own drawers(Tills)? spelling
if so..they back out the credit card tips..ect..
I dont know off hand right now about Cali law on tips..I have never heard of an owner taking the tip jars..thats frikn crazy....I can find out tom tho...
I have soem INSANE bar stories of corrupt owners..(owner in our area was selling ex-plosives...grenades..ect from bar) he was pouring WolfSchmitz Vodka into Grey Goose bottles...and thats only part of the story...He is now in prison..
btw..Cali is a "Fire at will" state..so a owner can fire whenever he wants...He can say..We dont get along..your fired...
Will ask about tips...
Salute
BiGB
xoxox
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Originally posted by GreenCloud
wow........................
I bartend part tiem for a friend..I have been a Banquet Sales Manager for 4 years..
That is insane....only the bartenders touch their tips. Yes they tip out the barbacks..cocktail servers ect...but.//What..the owner is physically grabbing the tip jars?....WTF?..that is not right...
The bartenders need to say..umm..no ..we count our own..
Couple of questions..
1) Are the bartenders counting out there own drawers(Tills)? spelling
if so..they back out the credit card tips..ect..
I dont know off hand right now about Cali law on tips..I have never heard of an owner taking the tip jars..thats frikn crazy....I can find out tom tho...
I have soem INSANE bar stories of corrupt owners..(owner in our area was selling ex-plosives...grenades..ect from bar) he was pouring WolfSchmitz Vodka into Grey Goose bottles...and thats only part of the story...He is now in prison..
btw..Cali is a "Fire at will" state..so a owner can fire whenever he wants...He can say..We dont get along..your fired...
Will ask about tips...
Salute
BiGB
xoxox
BGB thanks for the help. The wife says the Bartenders DO NOT count their own drawers and she is along the same lines as you as WTF is an owner doing coming close to the tip jar. Also keep in mind on busy nights there is more than one bartender and they split tips. I didn't mention that earlier and it might be relevent. Even so spliting should be up to a manager and the counting should be done in front of the bartenders.
as far as "fire at will" I'm not sure how to put this but here goes. There's a pending lawsuit against the owner allready for a bartender that he fired. Would my wife have a case against him if she got fired as a result of questioning the owners integrety/counting skills after being paid?
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"Can I be forced to share my tips?
The answer is yes and no. Under California law, "involuntary tip pools" are permitted where the tips are shared with the personnel who provide the services for tips. For example, in a restaurant, this includes everyone who provide "direct table service", i.e. waiters and waitresses, busboys, bartenders, host/hostesses and maitre d's.
The most controversial aspect of tipping is when supervisors and owners share in the tip pools. This practice is not legal. Supervisors and owners cannot share in tip pools and tip pooling cannot be used to compensate the owner, manager, or supervisor of the business under any circumstances.
Your employer can neither take your tips (or any part of them), nor deduct money from your wages because of the tips you earn. Furthermore, your employer cannot credit your tips against the money the employer owes you."
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The above is info from a legal website Gunslinger.
http://www.harriskaufman.com/tips.html
I am not a lawyer or a bartender, and don't know anything about professional bartending laws, but there is a phone number you can try there. Sounds like if the owner is keeping any of that tip money for himself, he is breaking the law.
Les
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Free Tip for ya.
call the labor board. state or fed.
should be in the phone book under Gov't agencies section.
labor board sometimes doesn't do anything for stuff like vac, sick pay. but when it comes to wages and OT, they'll be all over the owner's ummmm butt.
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Just be careful not to divulge too much information regarding tip "income". When I did tax returns in Canada for friends of mine who were waiters and waitresses I recall them being on the...shall we say...conservatively LOW side when reporting "gratuity income". I merely prepared the returns based on information they gave me. THEY signed the return.
Don't go running to a state/federal labour board claiming the bar owner has reduced a nightly "take" of $400/night to say $200/night IF your wife, or her co-workers, have been claiming say $100/night on her/their tax returns.
If the boss is this nasty he might just ask the tax authorities to check on that, especially if you have "called the dogs" on him.
Just a word of warning.
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Would it be possible for the working staff to keep the tips in their pockets or possesion some how and keep a running total of tips on the credit card bills? Then at the end of the shift pool the money and divide it up?
If not, maybe they could all chip in and have the snot beat out of the guy. :D
I hate when someone lets greed turn then into a scumbag.
dago
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Have your wife and fellow bartenders get together with the owner and say, "we know your stealing our tips. Job or no job, if you don't stop we'll break your F****** hands. If you fire any one of us, we'll all quit after we break your F****** knees. BEOTCH!"
What he's doin is stealing. Does he pay them extra well as far as hourly goes? Didn't think so.
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You could send a note to the local IRS office to the effect that the owner has been digging into the tip jar and not reporting it on his taxes... Or casually mention that you wonder if the IRS knows the owner makes tip income when he can overhear.
Or have a friend (preferrably a big one) walk in, ask to talk to the owner, and say that he saw the owner digging into the tip jar and if he doesn't cut it out, he'll call the IRS and also sic the local health inspectors on the joint by saying he saw rat droppings on the bar. If the guy says this as if he's just some random patron, it might not cause the owner to fire anyone.
If the owner is the type to burn his bridges though, he might decide to take everyone down with him and fire everyone before he sells the place.
If all else fails and your wife wants to just hit the owner below the belt, you can find out who the potential buyers are and let them know that the bar may be facing legal action as the owner has been stealing tips from the bartenders... That might scare them away.
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Owners don't get a portion of tips, unless they're working along side the employees. (You didn't say whether this was the case or not, I'm assuming it's not.)
Also I have NEVER heard of a bartender who didn't do their own drawer at a shift change.
Here's what you do (and it's important do do this before the place sells)-
Try to document how much is in the tip jars every night, because without being able to prove how much he's stealing you can't demand compensation.
Once you know how much he's been skimming, talk to an attorney familiar with California labor law- have him write a demand letter to the owner stating the law he's been violating and demanding the portion of tips he has illegally kept for himself, plus whatever monies (that they can prove) he's stolen from the tip jar. Have the attorney list the employees under "whistleblowers" protection so they can't be fired in retaliation, and state any terminations without cause will be dealt with via the Labor Relations Board.
Here's why the demand letter- Once you've informed him he has illegally kept monies you can file a lien on his business and if it sells and goes into escrow you get your monies, or it at least puts the ball in his court so he has to address your lein before he closes escrow. The strategy is to jeopardize his sale to force him to settle.
Actually if he wasn't going to sell there's very little you can do. The passage of Prop. 64 protects unscrupilous business peoples from advocacy litigation, so there will be no "free help" for your wife and her co-workers.
Now this is important- Document EVERYTHING at work. Keep a diary, and have your wife's co-workers keep diaries too. Tell your wife and her co-workers to keep their cool- don't walk off the job (sooner or later he'll try to get them to quit) don't show up late, don't give him any ammunition for justifible termination.
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I've seen an identical situation in Texas at a restaurant. The waitresses wound up getting hammered by the IRS for under reporting tips. They all lost their jobs and a new crop was hired. He had a little profile on each of the waitresses showing they were disgruntled workers."You don't have to work there" is the line they heard from the labor board. The "ringleader" wound up moving because nobody would hire her afterward. Nothing happened to the owner.
Sorry, I know that is not what you wanted to hear. :(
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Originally posted by rpm
I've seen an identical situation in Texas at a restaurant. The waitresses wound up getting hammered by the IRS for under reporting tips. They all lost their jobs and a new crop was hired. He had a little profile on each of the waitresses showing they were disgruntled workers."You don't have to work there" is the line they heard from the labor board. The "ringleader" wound up moving because nobody would hire her afterward. Nothing happened to the owner.
Sorry, I know that is not what you wanted to hear. :(
ding ding!
Be careful, as I said above.
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Thanks for the help so far Gents. The problem is other than this problem this is great place to work and she can make GREAT money working there.
Somoen asked if the owner was working behind the bar, the answer is no he walks back there and just takes the money. At end of shift he's the one that counts them and he doesnt do it in front of the bartenders.
I never thaught of it in a tax evasion perspective, if he's stealing money it's income and he's probably not reporting it.
and airhead....prop 64 doesnt change a thing. My wife can still start legal action against him. Prop 64 allowed a lawyer to do it without a complaint and could have pocketed the money. Thanks for the help though.
Lesli this is a great link. I'm gonna print it out and highlight a few sections and have my wife hang it up in the break room or something. Maybe that will scare him enough to quit.
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I would think it would be easy enough to have the bartetenders keep a running total on the money put in the jar some night, even if it means putting only thier own money in, say a set amount, and stashing the real tips in a hidden jar for one night. If the owner reports to them a lesser amount at the end of the night, they have him. If he is stealing, file a police report.
They might be well advised to consult a lawyer, or the city attorney about their concerns.
dago
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to prove he's steeling you'd have to have a record of how much was put in (as airhead said). you'd have to get everyone who shared off the jar to keep a good estimate of the tips as they go in and compare that to the total. it'd also help if you had a night or 2 where the boss wasn't touching the jar and showing a more accurate count.
but as Curval said you'd have to have an accurate count of how much your tip earnings are. and win or lose on this issue, you can bet they will use your evidence against you at tax time, and it will likely cost you much more than the boss is skimming (he knows this and it's why he's not worried).
most waiters and bartenders I've met might claim maybe 20% of their actual tips, I've even seen waiters take a beating from other waiters for giving an honest count of their tips, since the others had audits due to their tips earnings being so different.
not only will you lose more on taxes right now, but if she's worked their awhile (and under reported)the updated tip earnings could be used to adjust back taxes.
I'd probably handle it in a much more unofficial way.
I'd have as many of the co-workers as possible get together in a semi-social setting (ideally off the work property), where the boss is present. having one or 2 large friends, that the boss doesn't know, there as well really helps.
then just have a casual conversation about the tip jar, then immediately just change the subject and go to old work stories, one about a bartender who was caught steeling from the others and how he got his prettythang kicked by some co-workers after work, or something similar.
then another guy brings up the story of how a manager or owner was caught ripping some people off, and how the victim had someone the boss didn't know mess him up. then talk about the best part is how the guy kept working their for years because the boss couldn't prove which of the employees he had ripped off ordered his beating, and was afraid to fire anyone over it, since that would likely make the person behind the previous incident even madder than when he stole from them.
you're just telling old work stories. no direct threats. don't mention directly that you know his hands are getting sticky while he handles the money. it's even better if you can avoid even saying anything directly too him, it's way more effective if he over-hears it.
he knows there isn't much you can legally do about it, and feels secure in stealing from you without risk. so let him wonder if you intend to limit yourself to legal means.
it's wrong (and illegal) to threaten a guy. but it's not your fault if his mind wanders to a place that might lead him to a change of heart, and a new, more honest approach to tips. he might just be one of those guys who needs a little nudge to get his mind wandering down the right path.
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It should be a standing rule that if any bar patron or employee witnesses management touching the tip jar, all patrons and non-management employees shall commence a beat-down of the culprit.
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if theres a "regular crowd" , tell them about it, I bet they would take care of the owner in short order.:aok
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ya..gun..the IRS thing is bad..they defnlty can ..and I have seen them audit the servers -bartenders..make sure thats all in order first..
wow..an owner takes the tip jars........
Maybe just get all the bartenders to agree..that the next nigth they work..You say..NO..you are not taking OUR tips..we will count OUR money.
Be ready to be fired..but you have got to stand up....
Yes the next step after it gets ugly would be the Labor Board..defnlty fiel a complaint...
This is crazy ...very wrong
We pool our money between the 3 bartenders and 3 bar backs all the time...and heeeelll no ..boss doesnt get crap..except the 9k worth of liquor we sold for the dike
Love
BiGB
xoxo
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Originally posted by GreenCloud
This is crazy ...very wrong
We pool our money between the 3 bartenders and 3 bar backs all the time...and heeeelll no ..boss doesnt get crap..except the 9k worth of liquor we sold for the dike
Love
BiGB
xoxo
Yup that was my thinking. The owner gets the profit from the sales. He doesn't have any right to pad it with his workers tips. To me this is no different than an employee snagging money out of the register.
I was thinking of calling a cop friend of mine and have him sit at the bar. When he sees the owner take money out and put it in the register tell the bartender to z out and total up his drawer. whatever amount that is over what it supposed to be arrest the owner on the spot for theft.
Thanks again for all the ideas. Don't think the beat down Idea is gonna work though ;)
EDIT: From what I understand this bar is jamm packed and keeping an accurate runing total of tips would be futile at best. My guess is that they could go off just the credit card tips, that would be easier to keep track of. If the number at the end of the night is close to what the credit card tips were than you know something is wrong.
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This has nothing to do with the matter at hand, but it's interesting as an example of a success story.
My girlfriend years back bought a car that was misrepresented by the dealer. The car had been wrecked before and repaired at a body shop, but was represented as in original condition, though used.
Turns out, it had been wrecked before, or in a flood and was a complete lemon and the VIN numbers didn't match up. She complained when the car didn't run (soon after buying it) and they told her it was sold "as is." To make a long story short, the ABI (Alabama Bureau of Investigation) became involved, and after nearly a five year battle, she got her money back and another car. She didn't go into details about it...it had all started before I even met her, and she got her car about the time I started dating her, so have no details. She was instructed to not talk about it, and I never asked.
But it's very interesting how that ended up, with the crooks getting theirs. I thought that showed a lot of character and guts for her to see that through. Who knows what kind of nefarious people do that all the time.
Les
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I don't know how much threat the IRS would be- we've tried to get them involved with our campaign against commercial pot growers, and even if there was tens of thousands of dollars seized in a drug raid and the perp hasn't filed taxes for years the IRS is reluctant to get involved.
They've become a "kinder and gentler" IRS.
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She was a pretty neat girl Airhead. She took me to a Police party (only one I've ever been to) at a FBI agent's house. One of the cops asked me what department I was in, and told him I wasn't in any department, I was just there to drink beer.
Couple seconds passed and a very astonished look on the face of the one who asked. Then everybody in the room, about 30 cops, bursted out laughing for a good while.
They were pretty cool. I helped 'em finish off the beer ball they had. Told 'em not to worry, I practiced on my regulation keg cooler all the time at home, and that the beer ball was nothing I couldn't handle.
Les
:D
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Originally posted by Airhead
I don't know how much threat the IRS would be- we've tried to get them involved with our campaign against commercial pot growers, and even if there was tens of thousands of dollars seized in a drug raid and the perp hasn't filed taxes for years the IRS is reluctant to get involved.
They've become a "kinder and gentler" IRS.
This is a worthy of a whole new thread.
You are pulling Al Capone style entrapment tactics as part of a campaign against a bunch of weed growers? Seriously?
I find it extremely hard to believe the IRS wouldn't be interested in unfiled tax returns, tax evasion on undeclared drug profits, back taxes owed on those profits, penalties, interest!!??
A kindler gentler IRS?
Should I take the hook out now?
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Assets are seized by law enforcement; what was discussed was using the IRS to try busted dope growers on tax evasion, but without seizable assets the IRS won't waste their recourses.
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Originally posted by Airhead
Assets are seized by law enforcement; what was discussed was using the IRS to try busted dope growers on tax evasion, but without seizable assets the IRS won't waste their recourses.
So basically you are on a campaign to use the IRS to try to bust a bunch of drug "lords" who, although break the law and make money illegally, do not have sizeable or seizable assets?
What are these "lords" spending their cash on? Munchies?
Goodness Airhead...I'm all for community action, but this sure sounds like a personal vendetta rather than any real community action.
Are the Columbian, Jamaican, Asian etc drug gangs too scary to go after or something? They are the ones filling the streets with heroin, coke, crack, meth, etc. They are also the ones with sizeable and seizable assets in real estate, cars, legitimate businesses used for washing their cash etc etc.
I'm sure you must be pulling my leg on this.
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We've been battling the commercial pot growers who live upstream from my patents' property for over twenty five years, off and on. I don't care if they grow dope or not, but we have a protected salmon spawning stream running through our property and there's so many pot growers illegally taking the water it's killing the fishery. About every two-three years we contact the DFG and the Sheriff's Dept. and we walk the stream, pulling out illegal water lines- once we pulled out 14 lines in an afternoon's walk.
We've had pot growers squat on our land, and when my Mom was walking once she happened upon a pot grower who threatened her and advised her not to visit that corner of the property until after harvest. They've hung fish hooks from trees hanging at eye level, poisoned the deer, dumped chemicals in the ground...and this is on OUR land. Finally we signed a waiver allowing the Sheriff to search our land cause that was the only way to get rid of them.
Dig this- bout twenty years ago I got stopped by two armed pot growers on my parents' driveway- on our property- demanding to know what my business was for being there. They looked kinda funny when I told them we owned the land, and even funnier when I told them the Sheriff did search and seizure sweeps every summer.
I don't even want to get into the crime aspect commercial growers bring with them into a community, and in my observations most commercial pot growers use crank, coke, whatever- nor the drain they cause on a Community, but suffice it to say these people are seasonal residents who squat on any remote parcel of land they can find, pollute, profit and leave.
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Originally posted by Curval
What are these "lords" spending their cash on? Munchies?
like he said, law enforcement agencies have already seized their assets.
thanks to some really stupid laws, the agency that arrests someone can determine that their assets are from drug profit and keep their property or sell it and add the cash to their budgets. depending on the area and the rules they are operating under they often do this before the person ever gets a trial (since the law says your assets can be seized if you are arrested, not convicted)
you get things like corvettes given a coat of ugly paint and being used as cop cars. or they paint them up black, give them some stickers and use them for props in the 'DARE' program.
as I see it there are a few huge problems with these sort of laws.
1. it encourages cops to lie to get a conviction. loss of this money can leave them understaffed or under funded so some will find it worth lying to improve their safety, or in the case of assets that were disposed of before the trial they would be very motivated to make sure the guy was convicted to avoid the risk of these cash cows being canceled due to innocent people having their assets seized.
2. these seized assets increase their operating budgets, so it encourages them to go after criminals who have more money or cooler toys instead of those who are the biggest threat. (this in particular applies to what airhead was saying. law enforcement agencies already have the guys money and toys, so their is no profit to motivate other agencies to do their job.)
one example of this is a local law that says the car you are driving can be confiscated if you are arrested for picking up prostitutes or driving on a license that was suspended for DUI. the cars are sold at a profit, usually before the guy ever gets a trial (so you lose your right to due process), also the car doesn't even have to belong to the driver to be stolen by the city.
another issue that really shows that it's a revenue scam and not any sort of real deterrent is that unless the city can get enough money for a car (to cover the administrative expense in disposing of it) the don't take them. seems to me that if the point was really to take away the car that is being used as a means to break the law, then they would take these cars even if it weren't profitable for the city.
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Damn, Airhead, well at least you can fight back by starting up a whisky still in your house. You will be as famous as Mr. Jack. Make those guys sweat for a change.
Les
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Gun, don't know what to say other than no one should touch the tips except the acting bartendars. All the places I've bartended at had this rule (Shenanigans, Salty's at Redondo, Garica's of Scottsdale, El Torito) When we accepted Credit card transactions the tips were taken out of the drawer immediately and put in the tip jar.
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Originally posted by Airhead
We've been battling the commercial pot growers who live upstream from my patents' property for over twenty five years, off and on. I don't care if they grow dope or not, but we have a protected salmon spawning stream running through our property and there's so many pot growers illegally taking the water it's killing the fishery. About every two-three years we contact the DFG and the Sheriff's Dept. and we walk the stream, pulling out illegal water lines- once we pulled out 14 lines in an afternoon's walk.
We've had pot growers squat on our land, and when my Mom was walking once she happened upon a pot grower who threatened her and advised her not to visit that corner of the property until after harvest. They've hung fish hooks from trees hanging at eye level, poisoned the deer, dumped chemicals in the ground...and this is on OUR land. Finally we signed a waiver allowing the Sheriff to search our land cause that was the only way to get rid of them.
Dig this- bout twenty years ago I got stopped by two armed pot growers on my parents' driveway- on our property- demanding to know what my business was for being there. They looked kinda funny when I told them we owned the land, and even funnier when I told them the Sheriff did search and seizure sweeps every summer.
I don't even want to get into the crime aspect commercial growers bring with them into a community, and in my observations most commercial pot growers use crank, coke, whatever- nor the drain they cause on a Community, but suffice it to say these people are seasonal residents who squat on any remote parcel of land they can find, pollute, profit and leave.
Ahhhhh...okay. Now I understand.
Thanks for the clarification and I can see why you are fighting these guys.
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Sheesh... Anyone challenging me with weapons on my or my parent's property would find themselves dead within 30 seconds after I got inside the house unless they started running the second I got through the door. When I'm living in the U.S., I keep my mini-14 with a 30 rd mag loaded with alternating softpoint and FMJ rounds and a wide FOV 4x scope in a secure location specifically for such purposes. The magazine for my hunting rifle (7mm mag) is likewise loaded with rounds suitable for elk (or most vehicles) and sighted in at 300 yards, but it's not quite as quickly available, and my .40 beretta is also at hand.
Call me paranoid if you like but nobody is going to run me off my or my family's property. I simply won't tolerate it under any circumstances. If they are stupid enough to wander around on my property with guns, they get one chance to drop their weapons and/or get out, then it's whack-a-mole time. Their mere presence on my property with a deadly weapon is assault so the shoot would be more than justified.
Illegal pot growers trying to take over my land would just ensure that I wouldn't feel any remorse about their demise. This is America, not Colombia.
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airhead..that is a dam shame..not all growers up north are like that...I would actually liek to tell my friend who live sup there about this..see if he can 'remove" theses types from your area
anyways,,,
Gunslinger..there is now ay in hell you can keep a tally on your tips in a busy bar...way too fast paced for that
againn..I think you got 2 options..
1) all bartenders satnd together and tell boss..you will not take "OUR" tips anymore...Have them do this before the shift..You never fire anyone till after the shift..especially if its the whole crew..
2) Contact the labor board...try to take notes on how much he has been skimming...how mnay days hes doen it..and any other detail you can gather..
Good Luck
BiGB
xoxo
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The owner is the only one that counts the drawer and he doesn't do it in the presence of the employee? That's a bit odd.
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It is a case of not wanting to bite the hand that feeds.
They are making great money and don't want to rock the boat.
The best way is to do it annonomously and within the law. Find a legal represenative who speaks for all. A lawyer who threatens to go public with the incident might help. I'm sure the owner does not want his name or business in the newspaper.
The individual does not want to lose the tips, but standing together, I'm sure the owner does not want the entire staff to not to work at all. To have to hire and train a new staff would take a while.
Another way, EVERYONE on a Friday night tell the owner that he will not be touching the tips. He would not be able to be open for the busy weekend, a major loss for him. Sounds brave from this side I know. It would suck to be in that position.
I'm sure the owner does not realize that disgruntled employers will harm him more than what he is taking from the tips. Soon bottles and maybe cases will start disappearing from inventory, and less drinks will be rung up.
I worked with a guy on his last day who gave the bar away on a Saturday night. Not only did he give away drinks all night, he put it on a comp number of someone who had definitely done him wrong. Not saying it was right by any means, kinda funny to watch.
Tapakeg
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The best way is to breach the subject is of a missing tip to management. A high roller that dropped a roll that didn't turn up on an other wise slow tip night. Put it in a way that you don't accuse the house of being involved. It would put them in the situation of having to investigate.
One of three things could happen. If they are really dirty they could falsely accuse one of the barbacks. If you keep a good eye you would be able to vouch for them and keep them from being fired. If they are it's a whole new can of worms.
The second is they would wise up and stop skimming. It could be explained as an isolated incident and it took care of it's self.
Third, and most likely, nothing will change and they will consider the the next hottie that applies for a job.
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I was a fulltime bartender for a local Ground Round back in the mid 90's. Every shift, I opened with a fresh drawer and since if I had someone else work with me thru the shift, we split the tips up to that point (we they left). Management never touched the tips, and it was up to us to report what we had in tips for the federal form thingy (Curval?). I think they automatically assumed 15% of your sales as tips but you certainly made more than that.
One easy fix would be to lock the tip jar, much like a small box comment cards go in, etc.
You're in an interesting legal paradox. If you report it, you might do more harm to yourself (herself) than good.
Try this, she must have friends who are bartenders at other establishments, ask them what they'd do.
It sounds pretty unprofessional for that boss to borrow into their tip jar. But if this guy is the d*ck you say he is, he may know they have no recourse.