The Waitress Protection Program: It's all MY fault?

I just wanted to let you know that calling for a boycott on Darden's restaurants is working, and that you are screwing over my daughter and, subsequently, my family. As a server, or former server, or whatever you are, you know that the server's survive on tips. I am also a former server, bartender, cocktail waitress, it's how I put myself through college. My daughter is a 23 year old server at Olive Garden in Pittsburgh. I am a divorced mother and my children's father, my ex-husband, is a deadbeat dad. I helped put my daughter through college as much as possible, along with grants, loans, and her waitressing job. Now I have a second child in college. Are you aware that, by calling for a boycott on restaurants you are not hurting the restaurant as much as you are the server? My daughter made $15.00 yesterday, not worth the gas it took to get to and from work. Now I am putting more money toward helping her, taking away from my 19 year old and leaving myself with nothing at all, because of this stupid boycott. She cannot survive on $2 and some change per hour. By boycotting Darden that is what you are doing, paying her $2 an hour, since the boycott is taking away customers who tip her. I was a server at ChiChi's in the 80's and I also made under minimum wage, that is the point of tips. While I hate the fact that they are doing this to take away healthcare (she's under 26 so she is covered under mine, thanks to Obamacare), you and your boycott are taking money out of her pocket, and, subsequently, out of the pockets of me and my other kids. So think before you act. Darden can take the hit. The servers, who are the people being punished by this boycott, cannot. So from my family, thanks for nothing, you are hurting us, not helping.

Lisa J. Gartner-Nintze

Sr. Account Claim Representative

Actually, Darden is screwing over your daughter and as an accountant, YOU should know better (Darden instituted tip pooling, nothing I would EVER condone).

I raised a family as a server and Darden and their ilk are now making it impossible for mothers (especially single mothers) to pay their bills.

While we sympathize with your daughter's plight, this abomination of a trend needs to be stopped IMMEDIATELY.

Were Darden to reverse their stance on tip sharing, we would pull the site down, but until then...

Darla Webster

Excerpted from Gawker.com

Olive Garden, Red Lobster Scale Back Employee Work Hours to Avoid Paying for Health Insurance

Darden Restaurants Inc, the parent company of popular casual dining establishments such as Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and LongHorn Steakhouse, is no longer offering full-time work schedules to employees at "a select number" of restaurants in four markets across the country.

Though details were scant, the company did say there were no immediate plans to expand the "test," which is aimed at "help[ing] us address the cost implications health care reform will have on our business."

Starting January 2014, when most major provisions of the Affordable Care Act go into effect, companies with over 50 employees will be required to provide health insurance to employees working over 30 hours a week. Companies that flout the law will be fined $3,000 per uncovered employee.

"I think a lot of those employers, especially restaurants, are just going to ensure nobody gets scheduled more than 30 hours a week," Matthew Snook of the human-resources consulting company Mercer told the Orlando Sentinel.

Jumping the gun, Darden said in its statement that employees at restaurants where the pilot program was put in place will be limited to 28 hours a week.

A recent study by the nonpartisan Urban Institute found that companies with over 1,000 employees will only experience a 4.3 percent increase in overall spending due to added healthcare costs. Currently, some 75 percent of Darden's 180,000 employees are already working exclusively part-time and are not eligible for benefits.

Darden, which, ironically, bills itself as "the world's largest full-service restaurant company," made headlines last year when it started a "tip sharing" program requiring the waitstaff to share its tips with all other employees. According to the Associated Press, "That allows Darden to pay more workers a far lower 'tip credit wage' of $2.13, rather than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour."

PS: The company has no email address to register your protest, just a PO Box in Florida...

4 comments:

Unknown said...: Actually these businesses cannot take the hit.
When we boycott, they are forced to listen.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/20/darden-restaurants-profit_n_2337250.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/05/darden-restaurants-full-time_n_2246515.html; December 30, 2012 at 4:45 PM
Anonymous said...: People you really need to think about this. As a very long term employee i can tell you personally that the boycott can only hurt the tipped worker that you think you are trying to help. Since the institution of the tip sharing I have only been tipping out a few dollars more per shift and it was ofset by the fact that the company is letting us have a bigger station so that we dont lose money. Also you want the stock prices to fall to hurt the company but again it is the worker who have any profit share or retirement plan that will be hurt. Tbink about it cause you are hurting the wrong people!
E; December 30, 2012 at 10:02 PM
Frank said...: Did you or anyone else authorize your employer to take your hard-earned tips?

Our position is that they should not be allowed to take a single penny, period!

Although it wasn't for very long, I've worked in places where the owner / manager / bartender took a large percentage of the server's tips, despite the fact that it is illegal...

It's greed, that's all it is.

As I said before, Darden stands to put a cool $3 Billion in their pockets if this is allowed to go on while the servers, the people who actually make the place run, are left with pocket change...

Darla Webster; December 31, 2012 at 7:38 AM
nahidworld said...: A Waitress or waiter is a person who works in a restaurant setting. These jobs can vary in work conditions based on the type of restaurant. Waitress work at restaurants that vary from very informal restaurants, with low prices, to restaurants that are very expensive and high-class. These workers are responsible for many different things, but the main duty is to take food and beverage orders.
Waitress; January 15, 2013 at 10:25 AM

It's all MY fault?

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