The owners of the Empire Diner in Lansdowne have been ordered by a federal judge to pay their employees $1.3 million in damages and back wages, writes Vinny Vella for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

That decision came from U.S. District Judge Eduardo C. Robreno to Ihsan Gunaydin, owner of the Empire Diner, and his son Engin, the diner’s manager.

The family paid its servers below minimum wage, at $2.83 an hour, but argued the servers made up the difference in tips.

However, Empire’s management took 10 to 15% of servers’ tips each week to cover salaries of kitchen staff and bussers, according to court filings.

“Tipped workers in the food services industry rely on their hard-earned tips to make ends meet,” said Jessica Looman, deputy wage and hour administrator for the Department of Labor. “By diverting a portion of these tips, restaurant employers violate federal labor laws and harm workers and their families.”

Engin’s attorney, James Bell, argued the owners had to “guesstimate” their income for payroll because employees didn’t properly record how much they made in tips.

He noted that most of the employees in the suit were “problem employees with reasons to be disgruntled”.

Read more at The Philadelphia Inquirer about the damages and back wages owed to Empire Diner workers.

Here is a 6abc News report on the federal court order for the Empire Diner.