Former Gov. Chris Christie highlighted a “terrible example of mistreatment of workers” Saturday in a Twitter post criticizing a restaurant in Mendham that recently dished out $190,000 to settle a lawsuit for underpaying employees.

Christie called for locals to think twice about eating at Sammy’s Steakhouse.

Terrible example of mistreatment of workers by ownership. People should consider this when deciding where to spend your dollars for a dinner out. https://t.co/AUPukgdOiz — Governor Christie (@GovChristie) April 27, 2019

The former governor has mostly tweeted this year about his new tell-all book “Let me Finish," with details of his eight years as governor and on the presidential campaign trail in 2016. For most of his two terms as governor, he was known for bashing public unions, especially teachers.

But he sided with workers Saturday.

“People should consider this when deciding where to spend your dollars for a dinner out,” Christie tweeted.

Former workers at Sammy’s Steakhouse, also known as Sammy’s Ye Old Cider Mill, allege that the restaurant’s owners kept their tips and did not pay them minimum wage. The lawsuit was settled last month, with the owners agreeing to pay three years of back wages to 26 former employees — however, the owners did not admit any wrongdoing, their lawyer told Morristowngreen.com.

Christie stopped short of calling for an outright boycott of the restaurant on Saturday morning, but still expressed his disapproval.

The lawsuit named owners Samuel Fornaro, MaryAnn Fornaro, Philip Fornaro, and Gina Fornaro, stating that they did not allow waitstaff to keep all the tips they earned, according to the U.S. District Court complaint.

Reached Saturday, Gina Fornaro suggested contacting her attorneys at Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi for comment. A phone call and email there were not immediately returned.

Employees said that instead of hiring kitchen help at minimum wage, servers were assigned those duties at $2.50 an hour.

According to state law, employees who spend more than 20 percent of their time doing non-tipped work must be paid minimum wage for those hours. The employees said they were not notified of these provisions under the Fair Labor Standards Act and should have received minimum wage, according to the lawsuit.

The Fornaros said that they were entitled to share pooled tips when performing tipped work and they should not be considered “employers” under federal law, according to court documents. They asserted they were allowed to require the servers to do side work.

Cassidy Grom may be reached at cgrom@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her at @cassidygrom. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.