Some employees object while others say it is no big deal, and no one has been fined despite the contract which enforces work rules.

LAKELAND — A local restaurant has come under fire after a social media post about a contract agreement for its employees went viral.

Saigon Bistro, which is in Lakeside Village, is a Vietnamese restaurant with a four out of five star rating on Yelp.

Its owner, Kim Huynh, passed out a contract agreement to her employees at a Dec. 27 team meeting detailing how they would pay a certain amount of money for not doing particular work tasks.

A picture of the contract was posted to the social media site, Reddit, where it has more than 33,000 points or posts since it was uploaded Dec. 31.

The work tasks require employees to say "hi" and "bye" to customers, stay off their cellphones during work hours, have their side work checked by a co-worker and refrain from passing out straws to male customers unless they ask for one.

If they fail to fulfill their tasks, they are asked to pay anywhere between 25 cents to $20 for a third offense.

Kristina Russell, who worked at Saigon Bistro for more than a year, said she refused to sign the contract and was fired.

But that's open for question, depending on who you ask.

Huynh and several of her employees said Russell was not fired — she refused to sign the contract, which was required, and walked out.

Thousands of people have taken to the post on Reddit to express their opinions or displeasure with its guidelines, mostly commenting on the straw rule, which is simply a way to save product.

But Huynh said by drawing up the contract she was only trying to get her employees to work hard and follow the rules.

Standing behind the counter at her bistro, Huynh shared how her son was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, which forced her to take more than a year off from work.

While she was gone, she said, many of her employees stopped following the rules, quit saying "hello" and "goodbye" to guests and would be on their cellphones constantly.

Huynh said several people started asking her if she sold the bistro, which made her realize things were getting out of hand.

She came up with the contract as a way to show her employees she is serious about the way she runs her restaurant.

Abigail Seitz, who has worked at Saigon since it opened, said Huynh hasn't made one employee pay since she enacted the contracts and is only trying to get people to do their jobs.

Unlike Russell and two other employees who recently quit, Seitz and others still working at the bistro said they weren't bothered by the agreements.

"She's given us several warnings," Emily Kue, another employee, said with a laugh.

Although Russell said she has no intention of hurting Huynh's business by sharing her story, she said she does intend to get with a law firm in an attempt to get lost wages.

"I want people to know I wasn't disposable and that they shouldn't treat people this way," she said.

Russell said she loved her job at Saigon, her coworkers and her customer base, but said it was kind of a relief to leave.

"I was just worried about having to pay out of pocket or have them threaten to take money out of my pay check," she said.

Huynh, who said she has a strong faith, is not worried because she said she knows the truth of what happened.

"I care so much about them," she said referring to her employees.

Seitz agreed, saying Huynh treats her and the other employees like family.

"I was reading the comments (online) and I had to stop because I knew they weren't true," Seitz said.

In the mean time, Huynh said, if her servers do end up putting money in the "mistake" jar, it will later be used to buy them Starbucks, pizza or something they can all enjoy together.

— Tori Walker can be reached at tori.walker@theledger.com or 863-802-7590. Follow Tori on Twitter @Torilwalker863.