Casa Bonita employees demand full-time hours: "I am having a financial crisis"

Employees of Casa Bonita presented a list of demands to ownership and management this week, asking them to improve the working conditions for all employees and to revert to the pay structure initially promised.  

Fifty employees now known as a collective #WeAreTeamCasa gave a letter to management outlining their demands that include clarifying hours of operation, along with a request for transparency. The group adds there has been multiple "soft openings," but no indication of when it would be open seven days a week, no access to health benefits and not enough time to review documents before signing them.

Employees are also asking the restaurant ownership to rehire former employees who lost their employment due to Casa Bonita's contract-related disputes.

The group drafted the letter on July 12 through the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, a nonprofit organization of restaurant workers who work together to improve wages and working conditions and gave ownership a week to respond, but they refused.

The team of employees is asking ownership to adopt these policies that they hope will lead to fulfilling the promises that were originally made.

Several employees, including one that was recently fired over contract disputes, spoke with CBS News Colorado. 

Jo Lowry, a guest services employee, described her experience as a financial crisis. She says that's why she is speaking up.

CBS News Colorado reached out to the restaurant and in a statement, Casa Bonita management stated:

Casa Bonita strives to create the best working environment for its employees. This includes implementing the best compensation structure for all employees -- not just a few. To the extent some employees have concerns about our policies, we will continue to make ourselves available to discuss their concerns, individually or as a group.

The online petition created by the group WeAreTeamCasa now has over 1,000 signatures. In their petition, they warned the restaurant: "If we do not hear from you, we will assume you are not interested in an amicable resolution and we will move forward with appropriate action. Finally, we remind you that it is against federal law to retaliate against an employee for exercising their right to protected concerted activity; for working towards an improved work environment. This includes discharging, penalizing, disciplining, or in any other manner discriminating against workers for this activity. 29 U.S.C. § 215(a)(3)."

The restaurant is still in their beta-testing phase and is currently open Thursday through Saturday from 4:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., but diners must get tickets online and through a waitlist. Walk-ins will not be accepted.

An additional statement was provided by Casa Bonita on Sunday, July 23 in what was a memo provided to the staff: As we continue charting the path for our unique entertainment and dining experience, we wanted to pause for a moment to share some updates about Casa Bonita.

·         One-of-a-kind establishment. Casa Bonita has always been a place for families to enjoy both dining and entertainment in a unique environment. We have worked hard to maintain what has made Casa Bonita special while at the same time improving the experience for both customers and staff.

·         Opening well, not fast. We have been intentional about opening gradually in order to refine the many complex aspects of the Casa Bonita experience – entertainment, food prep, security, dive and puppet shows, live music, bar service, cleaning, technology, animatronics, etc. While we understand this may be frustrating for some fans and staff, we have been transparent about the intention and reasons behind the pacing. We do not want to make promises to customers or staff that we cannot fulfill.

·         Key accomplishments. Just since the beginning of June, with our limited schedule, we have doubled our service from 1,148 customers a week to over 2,300 last week, and we are expecting to expand to over 2,600 next week. While this is still a long way from the around 20,000 customers a week we hope to serve, it is a major achievement, as all of our staff have now been given the opportunity to work sufficient hours to have full-time benefits. Similarly, we have hired over 130 employees since May, well on our way to the over 350 staff we expect to need to serve that many guests.   

·         Non-traditional customer experience. One of the more significant updates to Casa Bonita is to allow guests to pre-pay for their experiences, order at a ticketing window, and carry their entrees to their tables.  This has been instrumental in providing high quality food and eliminating the long wait times customers faced when coming to Casa Bonita in the past. As such, while our servers manage serving drinks, chips and salsa, and sopaipillas that are included in the ticketed price, only specialty desserts, alcohol, and additional a la carte food purchases are added to the bill customers receive at the restaurant. 

·         Guests weren't tipping. As a result of our unique customer experience, we found during our soft openings that guests were leaving tips that were much lower than we expected, resulting in much lower total compensation for our staff. Accordingly, in an effort to ensure fair compensation for our staff, we increased the hourly wage for all of our service staff. As we continue to develop the Casa Bonita experience, we remain focused on providing our staff with a fair compensation and benefits package. 

·         Pooled tips. To be clear, Casa Bonita initially developed a policy for a tip pool in which all non-managerial service staff working on a given shift participated in tips received in that pool. With the unanticipated shortfalls in customer tipping during the soft openings, all staff were experiencing lower income than expected. That is why we moved to substantially enhanced hourly rates. 

·         Open-door policy. From the start we established open meetings and dialogue options with employees. Staff members are encouraged to share concerns directly with management and have multiple venues to express opinions, both individually and collectively. 

·         Continuing evolution. We intend to continue to experiment with changes, alterations, and improvements as dictated by our evolving business and the lessons we learn. One thing that's certain is that Casa Bonita will keep evolving to continue providing a great place to work and the best guest experience for generations to come.

We are delighted by what the Casa Bonita team has accomplished so far, and we remain enthusiastic about what the future holds.