LITTLETON, Colo. — Several former employees of the now-closed Dirty Pit Craft House in Littleton have reached out to Denver7, saying they are owed thousands in unpaid wages and have filed complaints with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
Miranda Myers worked as a server two days per week from February through the beginning of May. She said the red flags started popping up almost immediately as she noticed high turnover and heard others complain about not receiving paychecks. But, she said, management would explain away concerns and promise they were working to get their pay process up and running.
“Anytime I was supposed to get paid, I would get the runaround, ‘come in this day, come in that day,’ and then still have no pay,” Myers said. “When I would actually get paid, it would be a random personal check, that wouldn’t be for the full amount.”
Several employees have described the pay at Dirty Pit as haphazard, and for much less than they should have earned for the hours they worked. A formal payment process was never established, even as management would tell employees they were working with payroll systems. Instead, employees would at times receive personal checks from owners and at other times receive payments through Venmo.
“There’s a lot of vendors, there’s a lot of bands, there’s a lot of people that haven’t been paid,” Myers said. “So, [management is] taking in all of this income, and not even making an attempt to pay anyone.”
Joshua Sandoval, who held several positions at the restaurant between January and April of this year, said he is owed $3,667 in unpaid wages, “not including overtime hours.” He said he initially signed on to the job because he bought into the vision of a Colorado-owned business as a native of the state.
“I want customers to come in and leave happier than when they came in,” Sandoval said. “I thought things were going to slowly get better. They never did.”
Sandoval quit his job in April. He said he has since filed a Demand for Payment of Wages form with the Colorado Department of Labor and Education and has begun speaking with lawyers about pursuing legal action. He knows of a few fellow employees who are pursuing the same process. He said communication with his former bosses since then has almost completely fallen off.
Denver7 spoke to another former worker who is actively pursuing legal action—but who declined to be identified and interviewed for this story.
“I don’t want this to happen to anybody else,” said Miranda Myers, explaining why she decided to go public with her accusations. “I don’t think this should happen at any other company, to any other person.”
Katie Kinney, one of the owners of Dirty Pit, called the Denver7 newsroom saying she wanted to share her side of the story. She told us she was unable to participate in an in-person interview, but would send a written statement to include in this story. At press time, we had not received a statement.
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