[Theresadirect]

I was injured at Applebees on June 24 2010. They have only paid me 50.00 thus far and are fighting me/my lawyer on anything and everything. I make 2.63 an hour plus tips. When I got hurt I requested my vacation pay which Applebees human resources calculated at 13.98 an hour (based upon avg hourly reported.) However, Applebees has been sued in the past years over side-work time. Meaning when a waitress is asked to "wind down " (cut)and stop taking tables he/she still has customers who are not done dining and there are odd jobs/cleaning/restocking that must be done called side-work, so they cannot just leave. At times one works between one and two hours for 2.63 an hour (during these clean-up times and setting up before the restaurant is open or is closed) which is illegal because it is not the minimum wage. So having to do with workers comp - in reality my hourly wage is probably more like 19 dollars an hour as a five hour shift can require an hour and a half at least of off floor time. (no tips). How can I approach this and if their was a lawsuit in the past on this shouldn't it have stopped? State MA