CLEARWATER — A St. Petersburg woman is suing a Gulfport restaurant, alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Florida Minimum Wage Act (FMWA).
Nikole Brown filed a complaint Dec. 29 in the Pinellas Circuit Court against Habana Cafe Inc., doing business as Habana Cafe, alleging the restaurant failed to provide employees proper wages, benefits and incentives.
According to the complaint, Brown worked as a server at Habana Cafe from February-December 2016. The suit says Brown has suffered monetary damages, as a result of the wrongful conduct of the defendant to utilize the tip credit, instead of compensating servers at a regular minimum wage.
The plaintiff alleges Habana Cafe failed to record her working hours correctly, which forced her to work more than 40 hours per week, failed to properly compensate Brown for overtime hours worked, and violated the guidelines for proper tip pooling.
Brown seeks trial by jury damages for all unpaid wages, interest, attorney fees, court costs, disbursements and all further relief the court deems just. She is represented by Molina Arena-Randall of Cohen Law Group in Maitland.
Pinellas Circuit Court case number 18-CA-12