Employees at three Austin restaurants are claiming they were not paid ahead of the holiday season. The workers are employed by the Flavor Hospitality Group, which operates Gusto Italian Kitchen, Gina\u2019s on Congress, and Gracia Mediterranean. Employees say they haven\u2019t heard from the company\u2019s owner in more than a week. Now they\u2019re worried they could miss another paycheck.<\/p>\n
Christian De La Fuente, the beverage and operations manager for Flavor Hospitality Group, said working through the holidays has often felt like being with family at the company.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody is like a family everywhere. We’d all go visit each other’s restaurants and talk and learn and hang out after work,” she said.<\/p>\n
De La Fuente has been with the company for more than two and a half years and works across its three restaurants. Over the years, she said they\u2019ve built strong relationships with their community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is where they come, you know, with their families, and we’ve gotten so involved with all of them, and it’s just gone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
De La Fuente said employees stopped hearing from the company\u2019s owner on payday last week. She and another manager contacted payroll themselves to ensure workers received their checks before Christmas.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then I started getting texts on Christmas Eve night. \u2018Hey, my check bounced,’ \u2018hey, my check bounced.’ \u2018Hey, what’s going on? My check bounced.\u2019 And it made me really angry,” she said.<\/p>\n
According to De La Fuente, 20 to 25 employees were collectively out about $25,000 right before the holiday season. Multiple attempts to reach the owner have gone unanswered.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it’s awful. It’s truly disgusting and it’s unfair, and these people are owed their money that they worked so hard for,” she said.<\/p>\n
KVUE reached out to the owner, Cameron Lockley, for comment. A spokesperson with Motley Crew Media said in an emailed statement:<\/p>\n
\u201cCurrently conversations are being held to assess the status of the business and with full transparency \u2013 at this time it is unclear what the path forward is. We currently are working with professionals to help gauge what the best next step is to honor our staff and community. We are committed to working towards a resolution to all issues at hand and to doing what is right. The goal is to have more information in the upcoming days.\u201d<\/p>\n
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