NEWS: Students weren't paid tips as part of their wages
By Troy Torres
(Tumon, Guam) As part of its investigation, the Guam Department of Labor is looking into allegations that the students from both Okkodo and Simon Sanchez High Schools working at the Dusit Thani Resort Guam since last summer were not paid service fees, even though they were performing work normally assigned to the wait staff.
"Banquet employees are paid a percentage of sales on the built-in service charge for the drinks," an employee told Kandit on condition of anonymity. "The students weren't getting that. They were only paid per hour, and even that they took out time for breaks that appear in the system but that these kids weren't actually allowed to take."
GDOL is investigating the allegations that students were not given breaks as the law requires, and that they were made to work well past the time the law allows.
While the hotel is within its right to segregate which of its employees qualify to receive the service fees as part of their wages, the issue bleeds into the allegations of the time the students were made to work.
"Some of these banquets lasted past 10 p.m., and most times we are understaffed," the employee said. "So on top of the other duties these kids had, they were also serving the customers, like taking and delivering orders. The more the students worked, the fewer the regular employees worked, and the more money the hotel got to keep from the sales since they're not paying the students the service charge."
Kandit has received information that the Alcohol Beverage Control Board has joined the investigation relative to allegations of the serving of alcohol by underaged employees at the Dusit.
The hotel could lose its license to serve alcohol if found to have violated the conditions of its licensure.
