Legal Question in Employment Law in Florida

Restaurant Legality

I work at a restaurant as a server. The establishment that I work at is privately owned and the owner just came up with a new rule that I think is illegal. The restaurant recently had a few charges disputed, which they ended up having to pay for. Apparently, the credit card company told them that if they had an imprint of the credit card on the cc slip that the charge could not be disputed. So now the owner of the restaurant wants all the servers to make an imprint of each cc on every cc slip (after the cc has already been run). If we as servers fail to make this imprint he wants us to pay for the full amount of the transaction. He will hold the money for 30 days. If after 30 days the transaction does not get disputed he will return the money to us. The problem is, this can amount to a lot of money. Last night I had to give him almost $400. I only made $175. So he made me write a check out to him for the rest. If he cashes the check I'm screwed. Is this illegal? I've worked at plenty of restaurants, even some corporate ones. I have NEVER been asked to make an imprint of a cc on the slip, much less to pay for a cc charge.


Asked on 4/10/09, 12:06 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Alan Wagner Wagner, McLaughlin & Whittemore P.A.

Re: Restaurant Legality

If the credit card company says it is necessary to make the second imprint, then it is fine to do so and is appropriate for the employer to require you to do so. Holding pay as a penalty may be a little drastic, but it beats getting fired. What's the problem with making the second imprint? That seems to avoid any problems.

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Answered on 4/10/09, 12:50 pm


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