Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment is settling a 2024 class-action lawsuit from former employees who say they were not paid tips they earned.
The restaurant group will pay $1.55 million toward a settlement fund available to more than 700 servers, bartenders and server assistants, according to court filings.
The class action suit included claims from more than 127 employees, led by Jonathan Lamb, a former Jeff Ruby’s server in Lexington, Kentucky, and Jim Belmont, a former server at Carlo and Johnny in Montgomery.
More employees will be notified to file claims if they are eligible — employees must have started working at one of the restaurant group’s locations in Ohio from 2021 or in Kentucky from 2019. Some employees claim to be owed up to $19,000, according to court filings. The lawsuit alleged the restaurant group failed to accurately pay tips and wages to some of its employees. One example includes management allegedly not paying tipped employees the full minimum wage for nontipped hours, like opening prep work, or being required to work off the clock entirely.
Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment is settling the lawsuit without admitting any legal wrongdoing, according to court documents, but CEO Britney Ruby Miller denied the allegations after the suit was filed in 2024.
“Today, Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment was made aware of a lawsuit filed by ONE disgruntled former employee,” reads a statement from Ruby Miller posted to Instagram. “Our family-owned business is passionately dedicated to our employees. They are not only our greatest asset—they are family. Our purpose statement is to ‘transform the hospitality industry by improving lives through our culture of caring.’ We have always and will always stand up for justice and truth. The actions alleged in the lawsuit are untrue and we plan to defend ourselves vigorously to the fullest extent of the law.”
A similar federal lawsuit was filed against Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment by former employees in 2013. Employees from Carlo & Johnny and Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse claimed in the lawsuit that they were required to share tips with back-of-house employees in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. That case was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.
Jeff Ruby’s Culinary Entertainment did not immediately respond to a statement request from CityBeat about the most recent settlement.