Staff At The Bohemian Walk Out Over Unpaid Wages

The Bohemian in the Newbo District in Cedar Rapids is a place like no other. But after reports of employees walking out due to unpaid wages, the future of the restaurant is uncertain at best.

KCRG reports that staff members walked out last weekend after frustrations boiled over about not being paid. Some of those employees have since received money, but they say that the damage was done when the owner was unable to pay them on time. As the owner continues to find ways to pay unpaid employees, many tell KCRG that they simply aren't going to go back.

One employee told KCRG that she was supposed to be paid on Friday, but that the owner of the restaurant told the manager not to hand out checks until the following week because they would bounce. The owner of the Bohemian, Mike Richards, told KCRG that he did everything he could to get the money, even using cash from the registers to pay some of the staff. Richards stated that "after two years of COVID, we no longer had a surplus savings account if anything were to go wrong."

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Sadly, this isn't the first time something like this has happened at the Bohemian. KCRG reports that nearly a year ago, two former employees filed a lawsuit against the owner claiming thousands of dollars in unpaid wages. The two sides settled out of court. KCRG also reports that the Bohemian and its owner are also facing lawsuits and small claims for not paying contractors defaulting on a loan.