Dec. 23—CHAMPAIGN — The owner of a popular downtown restaurant at the center of a recent social-media storm says claims made regarding the business’ tip-out policy are dead wrong.
Ko Fusion owner Janet Bubin said false accusations about management pocketing a portion of employees’ tips and not distributing them among staff have been “devastating” to her.
“People are calling me, threatening me, calling me a thief and cussing and all kinds of things,” Bubin told The News-Gazette. “… I cannot sleep. I am just so hurt by it.”
Champaign attorney Ryan Bradley, who represents the Asian fusion restaurant at 30 E. Main St., said “Ko Fusion has a track record of taking very good care of employees” and follows state law.
“What’s happening, in most cases, is that they don’t understand the hospitality industry,” Bradley said of accusers. “And so one person who doesn’t understand tells another person who also doesn’t understand, and things kind of spread.”
Bubin said Ko Fusion’s policy on “tipping out” — the common practice of tipped employees sharing with other staff members — is communicated during training at the restaurant.
According to Bubin, the money goes to the restaurant’s “support group,” which includes bussers, expediters, barbacks, food runners and server assistants — but not management.
She added that such arrangements are common for “full-service” restaurants.
“Our servers, after tip-out, they average $25-plus an hour,” Bubin said.
Ko Fusion’s tip-out policy is as follows, according to Bubin:
* If a table tips less than 10 percent, that sale is subtracted from the total sales the server has to tip out from.
* Servers do not have to tip out at lunch if their total sales are less than $400. For dinner, the threshold is $350.
* For sales up to $800, including tax, servers tip out 5 percent of their sales.
* For sales above $800, servers tip out 6 percent.
Documents obtained by The News-Gazette through a Freedom of Information Act request show that a former Ko Fusion bar manager submitted a claim to the Illinois Department of Labor for “unauthorized deductions” of $284.28.
“5% tip out (goes) not to workers, but to the business,” the claimant wrote.
Ko Fusion has filed paperwork with IDOL disputing this claim, stating that the restaurant “dispersed all tips” and is required to file Form 8027, which guarantees that all tips are “allocated to all qualified employees.”
The restaurant has not received any regulatory action from the state relating to these claims, Bradley said.
“The Employer never deducted any amount from the employee’s pay, it is not clear why the employee (is) claiming deductions!” management wrote. “The Employee may think that tip out for bussers and bartenders are deductions. But it is not true, tip out are not the employee pay in the first place.”
Said Bradley: “The restaurant’s dealing with claims made by people about topics that the restaurant cannot defend publicly, because we can’t put our financial information out there to prove all of this stuff. We’re not going to go on Facebook and post all of our tax returns.”
Bradley and Ko Fusion’s management added that while other claim forms have been submitted to IDOL, the aforementioned case is the only active pending claim against the restaurant that they are aware of, and the only one that the state notified them about.
Per the information provided in response to The News-Gazette’s FOIA request, IDOL compliance officer Barbara McKinzie wrote in an internal October email that she’d been assigned seven minimum wage/overtime cases (MWOT) regarding Ko Fusion, with one of the claimants saying she “was instructed (by IDOL) to complete the claim as a MWOT, not as a wage payment and collection act violation.”
The claims, which were also included in the FOIA packet, ranged from as little as $850 to as much as $7,200, with most of the individuals, former or then-current employees of Ko Fusion, citing tip-outs as the cause. Some claimed that Bubin called this a “convenience fee.”
“On average she takes 33% of my tips every shift,” one claimant wrote. “This money does not go to any other staff.”
“These employee payments are following the MWOT,” McKinzie said. “The convenience fee … was not authorized and she is the leader of the group of employees that filed these claims. She also indicated that there are more than 7 claims which should be filed. As the Compliance Officer, I will be dismissing these claims as possible wage payment and collection act violations.”
McKinzie added that the dismissals would be referred to the wage claim unit for “continued processing.” Additionally, she wrote that one of the seven claims had already been withdrawn.
IDOL’s records show that the individuals who filed the remaining six claims were sent notices stating that the department had attempted to contact them to gather further information needed to complete their complaints.
“You must return this form within 10 days of receipt if you wish to proceed with this claim,” the notice stated.
IDOL records show there were two other similar complaints submitted using wage claim forms in 2023 and 2024. However, the FOIA packet did not include further documentation beyond the forms themselves.