Me and two of my friends were "hired" at this restaurant as full-time waitresses. Our ages are 17,17, and 18. We were the only American (white and Native American) employees, the rest were Chinese. We didn't have to fill out aplications or do any kind of interviews. We just left our phone numbers with the owner when the restaurant was being built saying that if they were hiring to call us.
The restaurant was just opening, and the Owner, Jacky, called and had us come in the first couple of days (it wasn't open yet) and clean the restaurant top to bottom. There was dust EVERYWHERE and on everything (chairs, tables, etc..) and we were working 11am to 11pm for at least 3 days. This he called our "training", for which were not getting paid. I worked there for 2 more weeks, the restaurant eventually opened and the 3 of us were doing our best since none of us had any experience as servers. I was doing good, coming early almost every day, making good tips (the first week was still part of our "training" and we weren't getting paid by the hour only keeping our tips, nor were we on any sort of payroll).
By the second week he told two of us (both 17 years old) our training was over and we could start getting paid by the hour. Since business was still slow he offered us a choice to either get paid $3 an hour tips or $10 an hour and forfiet our tips. We chose the 10 dollars and hour. The 3rd girl was told she still needed more "training" because she was "slow" and "lousy" and still only got to keep her tips. He was still paying us under the table at this time.By the 3rd week he made us fill out and sign applications he made up and he started picking on me as well as the 18 year old girl calling us "slow" and "lousy".
However I was making very good tips and business was VERY slow since the restaurant was still new. We would do everything we could and sit to wait for customers. Every day The owner would threaten to fire the 18 year old. For 3 weeks she was supposedly still on "training".in the meantime he would let us run alcohol to the customers..including wine, beer, and sake. He also allowed anyone in the restaurant (including underage workers) to have free drinks from the bar at the end of the day. He would tell two of the girls to do "milkshakes".. (where one grabbed the others' breasts and shook them up and down) and said that he liked it.
One day he hired another girl and hinted that it was because he was planning on firing someone, and that no one liked the 18 year old. Then all of a sudden one day he fires me, saying that a customer complained I had missed something on his order. However the whole time I was serving him I checked to make sure the order was correct several times and him and his family assured me that it was. They also left me a 9 dollar tip. Which tells me for certain that he was lying.
The owner of this restaurant is very unprofessional and treats his employees with such disrespect, that I am hesitant to work as a server at all. I hope that this is not the standard restaurant owner/manager description and I want him to pay for the way he treated me and the other girls. I have since spoken to one of my friends, the 18 year old who worked there with me, and was told that she still has her job but hates it and that the owner hired a male worker saying "there were too many girls". This man does not deserve to own a business in America.
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