David Carlson was ready to go to court.
His boss owed him $200 from his part-time job, but the 26-year-old UF law student said it was the principle that mattered: He and his fiancee had worked for their money, and they didn’t have it.
“I would still be working at Sharab if they were paying me,” Carlson said. “It was a job worth having.”
If the Alachua County Wage Recovery Program hadn’t helped, Carlson said he was prepared to try small claims. But it did, and he said his past few grocery trips were financed by his old bouncer job at Sharab Lounge, a local nightclub on South Main Street.
Three former employees, including two UF students, filed wage-theft complaints with Alachua County’s Equal Opportunity Office in February after quitting Sharab and never receiving the money owed to them. Together, the debt totaled more than $2,000. Through the wage-recovery program, all employees have received their money, with the last complaint settled March 21.
Shimal Patel, a supervisor at Sharab Lounge and the man accused of withholding the paychecks, said problems with workers stemmed from putting credit card tips on employees’ paychecks. Before, everyone got tips in cash at the end of the night.
The 28-year-old said he can’t call himself the owner — the club is run by his family and owned by the Bora Bora Club.
The complaints were settled by private negotiations through the office. Patel said he vows not to give up on the business, and some current employees are still working to get “caught up.” But his former workers have been “taken care of.”
Mary Coursen said she let her fiance, David Carlson, do most of the talking. He’s “a lot bigger and scarier than me,” she said.
The couple started contacting Patel to get their money since they quit in mid-December. Before Carlson found the Alachua County Wage Recovery program online, the two had faced a round of insufficient funds checks as well as ignored texts and phone calls that went straight to voicemail. Sharab Lounge owed her about $700, she said.
Coursen, a UF graduate student in exercise physiology, worked part-time as a bartender.
She started out at Sharab in summer 2012, back when her former roommate, Misty, was bar manager and later, general manager. Operations seemed normal, the liquor license was up-to-date, and employees were given paychecks on time.
But when Misty left in 2013, Patel and a friend took over — and later took the reins alone.
For the first month, Coursen thought things would work out. But soon things got out of hand.
“It was an absolute free-for-all,” Coursen said. “You came when you wanted, left when you wanted. People were wasted on the job.”
When the pay became irregular, she said she didn’t worry. Patel had a system. He wrote down all of the debts. He spoke of business ventures in the works. He told many stories, and Coursen said she believed them in the beginning.
By the end of summer 2013, her checks started to bounce, and soon, no checks came at all. If she made $300 in one night, she might end the night with $100 in her hand.
“They had to give us cash at the end of the night to keep us appeased, I guess,” Coursen said. “It was never what we were fully owed.”
Avery Bender, the final wage-theft applicant, was owed about $1,500.
Bender said she has worked at places all over town, including Salty Dog, Mother’s and Boca Fiesta. The 27-year-old has clocked in seven years of experience in the field.
She stopped getting paychecks in October 2012 but would get “$50 bucks here or there.”
“They kind of play dumb, but I know that they know what they’re doing,” Bender said. “They’re just trying to keep something going that’s clearly not working.”
The Alachua County Wage Theft Recovery Program started in January after the county’s wage-theft ordinance went into effect. Alachua County Equal Opportunity Manager Jacqueline Chung said the program has filed eight complaints so far, including Sharab’s.
At the office, workers serve as the middlemen, Chung said. They alert employers of the allegations, and if they repeatedly don’t respond, the employee can request a hearing or go to small claims court.
For Sharab, a court process wasn’t necessary. They responded and worked out negotiations through the office without contact with the employees.
The business has other troubles. Sharab Lounge has five complaints listed in MyFloridaLicense.com records starting in 2008 regarding inspection of its invoice, which is a record of what alcohol the club orders from distributors. Of the complaints, two resulted in no action, two resulted in a civil penalty and one investigation is underway.
Patel said at the lowest points money was tight, and he couldn’t afford to pay employees. He listed operating costs: rent, utility bills, insurance, Internet, cable.
At a December staff meeting, Patel said he announced a return to the old system where employees got credit card tips at the end of the night. Things are looking up.
But even after paying off former employees, Patel said he realizes a debt remains.
“They’ve been through the struggle with us,” he said. “This place wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them.”
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 3/28/2014 under the headline "Sharab workers paid after filing wage-theft claims"]
