The owners of a small restaurant on Leon Avenue in Kelowna are being sued for allegedly not paying nearly $ 160,000 to the owners of the restaurant he replaced, while the former head chef says he is one of many former employees who spend thousands of dollars unpaid. wages. Split Decisions opened this January on Leon Avenue, the former Renegade Kitchen site, but the new burger and beer were only open for a few months. According to a lawsuit filed by Renegade Kitchen Ltd. Last week, Christopher Broom and Bhupinder Dhanwant signed a deal to buy “certain business assets” from Renegade in November 2021 for $ 185,000, plus $ 4,246 for Renegade’s rent deposit. The lawsuit alleges that Broom and Dhanwant paid a $ 25,000 non-refundable deposit in December but failed to comply with their agreed payment plan. Shaun Sanders and Meghan Carr opened the Renegade Kitchen in December 2019, after running their food truck for several years. However, after vocally refusing to check for evidence of COVID-19 vaccines in October 2021, Interior Health ordered the restaurant to be temporarily closed and their alcohol license suspended. The restaurant went on sale a little later. Former Split Decisions head chef Shain Empey says they opened the new restaurant on Jan. 7 after Broom and Dhanwant bought Renegade cookware, along with a variety of other restaurant items. Empey says Broom handled the day-to-day running of the restaurant, while another man named “Bob” worked as a silent associate in the business. But Empey says “things did not look good” from the beginning. “There was a small window where it was good and I was getting full paychecks on time,” Empey said. “Most of the time, near the end, we did not receive our paychecks on time. They kept making excuses … he never made the right payroll from the beginning. “Many times [Broom] he would go to the bank and withdraw cash and then give cash to people. “ After a few months of work, Empey says he received an email from Broom saying they were closing and “would not be paid [the pay he was owed] until the sale of the restaurant. “ However, three months after Split Decisions closed its doors, Empey says he still owes him more than $ 5,000. And Empey says about a dozen other staff members are still in debt, along with the restaurant’s suppliers. “It was like, ‘Everything will be settled, and we’ll bring you your money.’ Keep going, being very positive that this will happen. “And then it never happened,” said Empey. Renegade’s lawsuit, says Broom and Dhanwant, reportedly agreed to pay $ 6,666.67 each month, beginning Feb. 1, 2022, until the remaining $ 160,000 owed to Renegade was paid. Renegade claims the couple paid $ 1,000 on February 7, $ 900 on March 3, $ 2,000 on March 4 and $ 2,097 on March 7. for a total of $ 5,997 to date. “To date, the defendants, either jointly or individually, have failed, refused or neglected to pay the full debt of $ 158,249.59 to the plaintiff, despite the plaintiff’s request for payment of the same,” the lawsuit states. Neither Broom nor Dhanwant have filed formal responses to the lawsuit. Empey, meanwhile, says he was out of work for about a month and had to borrow money from his wife’s family to “keep us alive”. But now he has found work at Kelowna’s King Taps, which soon opens on the site of the former Rose downtown. “We struggled for a while and we are still trying to play catch up,” he says. Empey says he still believes Broom has good intentions, but “the amount of money that was initially given to the company was not significant enough to keep the company alive during that really difficult time of year.” He has since filed a complaint under the BC Employment Standards Act, but he is not optimistic he will ever see the money he says owes him. Earlier this month, Castanet contacted Broom. He said he would be willing to discuss the matter in full by June 17th, following the completion of unknown legal proceedings. But as of Sunday, Broom’s phone number appears to be disconnected. “It’s very easy to disappear these days,” Empey said. “[Broom’s] “The phone number is no longer in service and I guess he probably got rid of the email he had.” – with files by Rob Gibson
