My Husband was the executive chef of an independently owned restaurant beginning in January. Circumstances of how the business was run (smoking indoors, employees drinking on shift and knowingly serving underage patrons )and how he was treated (was told he was worthless, racist, incompetent, etc) as an employee caused him to seek another opportunity, which was offered. He resigned his position without notice, however, was not paid for his time. Because he was considered as having a management position, there is no time-card to reference for payment. All we have are his pay stubs from prior checks (which I had a pretty shady feeling about when we went to cash them) stating his last pay period was Feb 1 through Feb 14. Husband worked there (under the verbal contract of $700 per week) from the 15th and quit in the afternoon on the 23rd. By our calculations, he is owed $850, based on 8.5 days of work.
The owner is telling Husband there is no check for him, and will not correspond via text or email. He will only speak with him in person, which makes me think he is trying to trap Husband into saying something or doing something that could be considered suspect. I have asked Husband to start gathering statements from his vendors, patrons, other employees, etc. that will verify he was employed there (and working) up through the 23rd just in case we do need to take him to court. I know it's not a lot of money, but there is no reason for this. Husband hated the job, was treated like crap, and quit. I would love to be able to say that we could live without the money, but with the economic climate being what it is, we need every penny we earn.
We are planning on following a recommendation to taking him to Small Claims Court, however, I need to understand the process. This happened to a girlfriend of mine in Chicago who was paid after having her attorney call the business. I don't know if we could have someone do that on Husband's behalf, but it's worth a shot. I have asked him not to contact Restaurant Owner or the restaurant until we have gotten some further legal advice. I know that taking him to court will only delay payment, and probably wind up costing us more than it is worth, but this guy thinks that he is above the law.
What is the legal process behind this action, and what other documentation or statements could you recommend? Would having an attorney call Restaurant Owner be a bad idea? I don't want to contact him for fear that he'll come up with something like extortion or intimidation, but as Ohio Statue states, it is illegal for him to withhold payment. He does have a legal background, so I'm hesitant to take any sort of action...
