Former Ammoora workers file lawsuit alleging unpaid wages and tips, ‘retaliatory’ firings

Four former employees of Ammoora are suing the Federal Hill restaurant, claiming they were not paid proper minimum and overtime wages and that they were not given their fair share of tips.

A lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland also alleges that two of the workers were fired after bringing their concerns to management.

Servers Delia Gottke, Tim Linaberry, Luke Percy and Ariana Wilgar filed the lawsuit against Ammoora’s owners Jay J. Salkini, Markie Britton and Andy Salkini and manager Colin Kahoe late last year. The complaint seeks monetary damages for alleged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Maryland Wage and Hour Law and and the Maryland Wage Payment and Collection Code.

In a March response, Ammoora’s owners denied the allegations, saying that they had “acted in good faith” and complied with the law “at all times.” Their attorney, Yedidyah Charner, declined to comment.

The restaurant, which opened in the posh Ritz-Carlton Residences in January 2023, has been celebrated for its Levantine fare from “Top Chef Middle East” alum Dima Al-Chaar and its decor evoking Damascus, Syria. People Magazine recently named Ammoora to its list of the “50 Most Beautiful Restaurants in America.”

Jay J. Salkini, the founder of global telecommunications company Tecore Networks, invested more than $1.8 million in capital improvements to the 200-seat restaurant, according to documents filed with the city’s liquor board.

At issue, according to the lawsuit, are the hours of non-tipped work the Ammoora servers performed before the restaurant opened and after it closed. At the start of shifts, the suit alleges, employees would get the dining room ready for guests and participate in staff meetings. At the end of their shift, they would prepare the restaurant for the next day, clearing tables and cleaning tableware.

The former employees allege they spent between 25% and 50% of their scheduled shifts on these side tasks, for which they were not earning tips, according to the complaint. But when calculating payroll, Ammoora took what is known in the industry as a “tip credit,” which allows bars and restaurants to pay their employees as little as $3.63 an hour rather than the minimum wage, which in Maryland is $15 an hour.

Though non-tipped work is part of many restaurant workers’ duties, the U.S. Department of Labor limits the amount of chores employers can require while still taking the tip credit. The department established the “80/20 rule,” which says employers can not use the credit if their workers spend more than 20% of their time on non-tipped tasks.

Gottke and Wilgar, who both began working at Ammoora in January 2023, said they were initially promised an hourly wage of $10, plus tips, but that was later changed to the $3.63 tip credit without written notice. Gottke also alleged that she was paid too little for working overtime in at least one instance.

The suit accuses Ammoora’s management of setting up an “invalid” tip pooling arrangement, requiring servers to pay an “excessively high” 3% processing fee on tips paid via credit card, as well as mandatory tip-outs to food runners and bartenders. After the tip-outs and fees, servers said they noticed the credit card tips on their paychecks were lower than expected. .

They asked managers about how tip-outs were being calculated and deducted, the complaint says, but “could not get a straight or clear answer from defendants about how their tips were being handled.”

Servers were required to share tips with the restaurant’s wine director, who also worked as an assistant general manager, according to the lawsuit. Under federal law, managers are not entitled to any portion of an employee’s tips.

Gottke challenged the tip-out policy, the lawsuit says. Shortly afterward, she was “forcibly cut from the schedule” and then fired in August 2023.

In early September, 90 minutes after Wilgar complained about another change to the compensation structure, managers cut her evening shift from the schedule, and soon canceled her next two scheduled shifts, the suit says. Wilgar viewed the cuts as “a constructive termination” and began searching for another job.

The servers are seeking to be paid their missing minimum and overtime wages as well as “unlawfully retained tips,” according to the complaint. State law allows for a court to award triple the amount of unpaid minimum and overtime wages.

Howard Hoffman, an employment attorney representing Gottke, Linaberry, Percy and Wilgar, declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation.

The lawsuit is the latest complaint of wage theft in the Baltimore restaurant industry, which has seen a recent wave of public allegations from workers.

Last summer, employees of the now-shuttered Church Bar in Old Goucher alleged they were frequently paid late. Workers at Allora and Zander’s, both owned by restaurateur Brendon Hudson, told reporters they had dealt with bounced checks and late or inadequate wages. And when the Fells Point Tavern closed suddenly amid bankruptcy litigation, employees there filed a complaint with the Maryland Department of Labor, saying they had not been paid for weeks of work.

The Ammoora dispute may be settled without a trial. A settlement conference is scheduled for May 24, court records show.