SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - A former employee of a Gaslamp restaurant says that former staff members have been waiting for more than two weeks for their final paychecks after they were laid off at the beginning of the pandemic.
Former employee Angel Newman says that she and dozens of others have been getting the runaround from the company when they try to get answers.
A few hours after 10News reached out on Monday morning, a company spokesperson called and said their paychecks are about to go out.
In an interview with 10News on Monday morning, Newman said she loved her job as a promoter at Sign of the Whale. She added, “Basically, my job was to go outside on Friday and Saturday nights and be like, ‘Hey, guys. You want to come in here?’”
The once hopping bar and restaurant is now temporarily shut down during COVID-19 crisis.
“Monday the 16th we closed,” Newman said.
When 10News interviewed her on Monday morning, she said that she and her former coworkers never got their final paychecks.
“I’m probably only out of a $200 check. For me, it's not very much [but we get paid weekly] so for full-time servers or bartenders that worked all weekend, I mean, I'd imagine that they're owed somewhere around a thousand dollars," she said.
She showed us messages that appeared to be sent on March 18 by her former supervisor, assuring them their checks would be mailed out, but those checks never came, despite their repeated efforts to get updates.
“Part of the reason that I came to [10News] was because if our restaurant isn't paying, I'm hoping that other restaurants haven't also done the same thing and that people aren't also experiencing the same thing,” she added.
On Monday afternoon, a company spokesperson called and said that the checks were now being processed and printed and should be received by the end of this week. 10News also received a written response that added that the paychecks were delayed because of the severe impacts that the pandemic has had on the industry and business.
