Imagine the trauma of being robbed at gunpoint, especially when you're at work
and then imagine being put on the hook by your employer to pay that money back,
that Is what happened to one bartender in Las Vegas who is
now taking action against his employer, but I gotta be honest with you.
Homeboy took a lot of abuse before he finally decided to stand up for himself.
And we give him all the support because he definitely deserves justice in this case,
we're talking about Edward Parker.
So Edward Parker was working as a bartender in Las Vegas back in December of
2020 when an armed robber walks in, points a gun at his face,
there's video surveillance of this, you could watch it online ,and demands money.
So of course, in an effort to avoid getting shot to death,
Edward Parker decided to hand over the money from the cash register,
there was about $4,000 in there ,and he
then was forced by his employer to pay the money back,
the money that was robbed from him while a gun was pointed at his face.
His wages were garnished ,about $300 per paycheck, and
now he's actually taking action against this employer and
he's getting a shout out there from Las Vegas locally.
Shoutout to Edward Parker for having the guts to expose these shady bar owners.
And by the way, this is actually a practice that you see in the food service
industry, people will walk out on their checks, they won't pay, and then
the owner of the restaurant will force the server to pay back the money that was lost
as a result of customers refusing to pay their check, which by the way is illegal.
Under very few circumstances, the employer can get away with it.
For instance, if there's proof that the server was being negligent,
they might be able to get away with it.
But that's illegal, employers are not allowed to do that.
In this case, we have an extreme example where someone gets robbed,
there's a gun pointed at his face and to add insult to injury,
his employer tries to put him on the hook for this.
So, to give you more detail into what happened after the robbery took place,
only hours after that, mere hours,
his employer did the most callous thing imaginable.
His bosses then presented Parker with a repayment form and worried he'd be fired.
He decided to sign it.
So imagine ,you just had something traumatic happened to you, you don't even
have the time, you don't have the time necessary to just calm down and
try to find some peace, right?
That is a traumatic experience.
You think you're going to die.
You have a gun pointed at your face ,and before he could relax a little bit,
the employers hand him this form, and they're like ,you should sign this,
we're gonna garnish your wages.
It's a form indicating that you agree to us garnishing your wages ,so
you pay back that $4,000 that was robbed from us ,and he signed it.
He felt like he had no other choice, but the story, believe it or not guys,
it gets worse.
So apparently his paycheck was docked $300 at a time before the nearly
$4,000 debt was paid off by the end of June, reports NBC News.
Now, despite being forced into the repayment plan and suffering panic
attacks and major anxiety ,Parker just kept working according to this lawsuit.
Now, eventually he paid back all the money, and then he had some time off,
he had approved vacation time, and he decided to take a little bit of time off.
He's like, alright, I just went through something awful,
maybe a little bit of time to myself to recover mentally from what I've been
through ,and you know what happened after that?
They fired him, They fired him ,and it wasn't until they decided
to fire him that Edward decided, you know what ,I'm gonna sue.
This is crazy.
In July, he was demoted to extra board status meaning,
he'd be used only for on call work and
he has never been asked to work there again, according to this lawsuit.
By the way, two people connected with this robbery have been arrested and
there's absolutely no indication that these robbers knew the worker,
there's no indication that this was an inside job.
Edward parker did nothing wrong here.
The only thing that he did wrong was give his employer the benefit of the doubt,
which he definitely should not have done.
Look ,working here, I know it's cliche, you hear people say it all the time and
I kind of cringe when I hear it, but no, I could never imagine Jink coming to me or
anyone at this workplace and saying, we just got robbed of these computers and
so we're going to garnish your wages until we make up that lost money.
No, it never happened.
But it happens all the time in many jobs across the country.
This is a more extreme example, and
the only reason why we know about it is because the worker did have the courage to
finally file a lawsuit against the bar owners, the employers here.
But, it is amazing how disposable workers are to some employers in this country.
They mean nothing to them, even though these are the individuals
who are doing the work necessary to make the profits that they live off of ,to keep
their bars running ,to keep their restaurants running.
And I'm very happy that he found council, he's got his lawyers,
he's filing this lawsuit, he's moving forward, but
if this was a restaurant that had more representation through a union for
instance, I would argue that the union would intervene much sooner and
ensure that his wages would not have been garnished in the first place.
But I'm glad he's taking them to court.
He definitely deserves to be compensated.
All that money that was garnished from his wages should be paid back.
And then some, and employers should be put on notice.
This kind of behavior is insanely illegal.
And again, even if you are a server who had this unfortunate experience of
people walking out on their checks,
your employer is not allowed to garnish your wages as a result.
So just a cautionary tale, protect yourselves, protect your wages and
don't put up with this garbage.