Prominent restaurant owner Scott Dolich owes more than $580,000 to 41 former employees for the practice of tip pooling.

A Multnomah County jury decided that the owner of Park Kitchen must pay employees back for six years of tips that were taken and split among kitchen staff, salaried managers and the general manager.

The employees' attorney Jon Egan said that he thinks this decision is the first in the state to hold an employer accountable for tip theft.

Each of the 41 employees who worked either at Park Kitchen in northwest Portland or now-closed Bent Brick will also receive a portion of about $138,000, which will be divided based on what they made for 30 days, working eight hours per day.

The "tip pool" was originally instituted in restaurants to prop up low wages paid to people who prepare food in restaurants. But a federal court ruling in February 2016 said that it was illegal to require servers and other employees who receive tips to share that with cooks and people who do not.

In July 2016, Dolich eliminated tipping all together, in a move he said was more fair and responsive to Oregon's rising minimum wage.

Park Kitchen, which celebrated its 15th anniversary two months ago, had previously been named one of Portland's best restaurants. The restaurant did not appear in the newspaper's 2018 restaurant guide.

The Multnomah County case shows that Park Kitchen and Bent Brick management retaliated against at least one employee who complained about the tip pool. The jury awarded Holly Rice $50,000 in non-economic damages.

Rice and Nancy Allison had previously taken their complaints to the National Labor Relations Board and won there. Rice got about $20,000 and Allison got about $30,000. Allison was not awarded any more money from the Multnomah County jury.

A similar case, with the same employees, is pending in federal court with a Dec. 3 trial date.

-- Molly Harbarger

mharbarger@oregonian.com

503-294-5923

@MollyHarbarger