12/20/06 RE: New Countryside Café 28050 U.S. 19 N., Suite 104 Clearwater, FL 33761 Owner: Jody Yousif/Employer Phone: (727) 796-6998 Fax: (727-797-4202 Employee: Victoria Rich 2400 Winding Creek Blvd., #16-101 Clearwater, FL 33761 (727) 669-5003 On November 2nd, 2006, Victoria Rich obtained employment with the “New Countryside Café” in response to an ad in “The Flyer” magazine she answered for a delivery driver, worded full time or part time, and was interviewed for said position, agreeing to work for $5.00 an hour plus tips available from customers for delivering food from the Café to local businesses. Hours agreed to work between Jody Yousif/Owner and Victoria Rich/Employee were from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday as a delivery driver, kitchen help, and dining room assistance as necessary until delivery business for the café' picked up. Victoria Rich was able to supply gas in her car from said deliveries with the tips she received from local businesses that ordered food from the New Countryside Café that she delivered to. Mr. Yousif did not supply gas money or reimburse mileage to Victoria Rich for the use of her personal vehicle to run errands for the Café,' or make food deliveries for the Café'. Mr. Yousif claimed he would pay $5.00 an hour in cash to Victoria Rich in order to make up for not supplying gas or mileage reimbursement, or offering any kind of health insurance policy for the time being, so she would be considered sub-contracted through the company and responsible for her own taxes until they were able to provide benefits and workman's comp. for their employees, which was to happen sometime in the next month before the Christmas holiday. Mr. Yousif agreed Victoria Rich would have one 15 minute break during her work day as required by law, to eat, or use the bathroom, and meals would be provided by the Café'. At the time of Ms. Rich's initial employment with the “New Countryside Café”, there was one other person employed under Mr. Yousif on a full time basis. The full time employee Nicole, (last name unknown), was required to work from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Ms. Rich witnessed that Nicole was paid cash for her hours worked at the end of every week also. Mr. Yousif's wife Bridgette, assisted with customer orders and tended to the inside dining area of the café' itself, and was generally there upon Ms. Rich's arrival in the morning hours, on most days that Ms. Rich worked. There were a few occasions that Mr. Yousif's wife Bridgette would not be in the café' upon Ms. Rich's arrival, or would leave suddenly during the days Ms. Rich worked directly due to a dispute with Mr. Yousif. Ms. Rich witnessed several times that Mr. Yousif would yell at Bridgette in a different language, but the tone appeared angry, and Bridgette would leave in tears, and visibly shaking. Victoria Rich continued working her scheduled hours and/or days from November 3rd, 2006 until December 13th, 2006, as needed. During this time, she was subjected to verbal abuse from Mr. Yousif, profanity/four letter words. He would tell Ms. Rich that he was just stressed out, and that what why he yelled all the time. Ms. Rich also witnessed Mr. Yousif drinking wine during business hours in the kitchen from the time Ms. Rich arrived at work in the mornings until the time she left to go home for the day in the afternoons, each and every day Ms. Rich worked for the “New Countryside Café”. Mr. Yousif did not allow Victoria Rich breaks to eat, and she had to beg to use the restroom in-between food deliveries, nor was Ms. Rich reimbursed with gas money when asked to shop for the Café' for supplies such as bread, and the return of a toaster for Mr. Yousif to Sam's Club that he had dropped in the kitchen sink. Mr. Yousif said he would make up for the lack of reimbursement at Christmas time. During the six weeks of Victoria Rich's employment with “New Countryside Café', she was allowed only two times to eat food provided by the Café', but only when there were no deliveries waiting on the counter. Each time, Ms. Rich was given exactly only 5 minutes to eat a meal when allowed. Also, during this time, Victoria Rich witnessed the other employee Nicole, walk out from her duties in the Café', the first time claming aloud that is was unfair that she was not allowed to eat or sit down at all after working from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day for as long as she had been employed with Mr. Yousif, and, “where is the health insurance you promised me?”. Nicole did return to work the next day after she walked out that particular day (Ms. Rich cannot recall the exact date) and every day Ms. Rich worked at the Café after (approximately 7 to 14 days) until December 11th, 2006. Nicole said Mr. Yousif had agreed to pay her $1.00 more an hour to return, but she had to agree to quit her 2nd job too. On December 11th, 2006, Bridgette left a message on Victoria Rich's home voicemail asking her to come into work an hour earlier than scheduled claming she would pay her $6.00 an hour instead of $5.00 an hour. Victoria Rich reported to work at 7:50 am on December 11th, 2006 as requested. There were three officers of the law in the restaurant itself upon Ms. Rich's arrival there. After they left, Bridgette explained they were there because their full-time employee Nicole, had walked out on the job again, but was making threatening phone calls to the owners because they refused to pay her after she openly flirted with the Mr. Yousif in front of Bridgette, his wife. Mr. Yousif asked Victoria Rich to report to work at 8 a.m. through 4 p.m. until they could acquire more help, and Victoria Rich agreed. Bridgette told Ms. Rich that they would make health insurance available to their part time employees as well after they came back from their cruise to the Bahamas at Christmas time. Victoria Rich worked from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on December 11th, 2006, 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on December 12th, 2006, and 8 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on December 13th, 2006 that week. Victoria Rich was not allowed breaks to sit down, eat, or use the restroom during this time with Mr. Yousif telling her she needed to make up for the lack of employees until they hired other people. Victoria Rich begged Mr. Yousif to get more help in the restaurant soon, as she was literally swaying on her feet every day and responsible for driving to roughly 30 businesses a day with the majority of the deliveries being on U.S. 19 North, and back to the Café, also located on U.S. 19 North' by herself very tired, as well as drop off menus for the café at businesses within a five mile radius in-between food deliveries. Victoria Rich lost 10 lbs in 3 days as a result, and could not even stand up by the time she arrived home from work on December 13th, 2006. Victoria Rich called Bridgette as soon as she could get out of bed on December 14th, 2006 to relay the message to Mr. Yousif that she was unable to come into work that day as she was not feeling well due to extreme exhaustion. Victoria Rich agreed to get some much needed rest, and call back on December 15th, 2006 to let Mr. Yousif know if she was able to come in that day. Mr. Yousif agreed to that arrangement and said he would try to find some more help for the Café'. On December 15th, 2006, Victoria Rich called the Café to report she was unable to come in for that day either. Bridgette assured Ms. Rich over the phone that they had hired a couple of drivers from a temporary agency to help them out in the meantime. Later in the afternoon of December 15th, 2006, Mr. Yousif called Ms. Rich at home and asked if she would bring the menus that Ms. Rich had been distributing to local businesses back to the café itself, because many of them were still in Ms. Rich's vehicle from the week before. Ms. Rich agreed to bring the menus in to Mr. Yousif on Monday, December 18th, 2006, and reminded Mr. Yousif that she would need to get paid for the prior week's hours, as she was unable to be there on payday Friday of the work week at the Café ending December 15th, 2006, also the day Ms. Rich would have been paid had she not been too sick to come into work that day. Mr. Yousif apologized for assuming that Ms. Rich had quit when she could not come in due to being sick on December 14th, 2006. Mr. Yousif said he was under a lot of stress because a health food inspector was there recently, and he had been written up for several violations, including the wine bottle he had in the kitchen, as they didn't carry a liquor lisense. On Monday, December 18th, Ms. Rich arrived at Countryside Café' with the menus for Mr. Yousif, and asked to be paid for the prior week's worth of work (25 hours total) so she could get the gas necessary in her car to make deliveries again. Mr. Yousif yelled at Ms. Rich telling her that she needed to come back on his time to get paid, not her time, but after the restaurant was closed for the day. Mr. Yousif yelled this through the kitchen window of the restaurant using the “f” word about 6 times. He also lifted a bottle of wine and drank from it right in front of Ms. Rich after yelling at her. Victoria Rich agreed to come back at 3 pm when the restaurant was officially closed for the day. Ms. Rich arrived back at the restaurant at 2:55 p.m. with her son. Mr Yousif was standing outside the door of the café' drinking a substance that smelled like alcohol in a tall plastic cup. Ms. Rich followed Mr. Yousif into the restaurant with her son to be paid for the work she had done the week before. As soon as the doors to the restaurant were closed, Mr. Yousif started using profanity with Ms. Rich in front of her son, yelling that Ms. Rich was no longer employed there and he didn't owe her anything from the week before claiming he had lost business because Ms. Rich could not come in to deliver food on Thursday or Friday of the week before. Mr. Yousif said he did not have to pay Ms. Rich and he would tell anybody that he knew, including George W. Bush that Ms. Rich never even worked there to begin with. Bridgette tried to reason with Mr. Yousif telling him he needed to worry about being an illegal immigrant as well as not paying taxes to the government. Victoria Rich's son was clearly upset, so Ms. Rich decided it would be safer to leave the restaurant and try to reason with Mr. Yousif over the phone. Several attempts were made by Victoria Rich to receive payment from Mr. Yousif via phone as she was relying on her pay for that week to contribute to her mortgage payment, and supply gas in her car, as well as Christmas money for her son. Mr. Yousif has stated that he would find witnesses to deny that Ms. Rich had ever worked there to begin with, as well as claiming she was independently contracted out through them because he paid her cash, so there was no proof, and that he was not an illegal immigrant. Ms. Rich is a single mother who is merely trying to make ends meet for her and her son. Mr. Yousif bragged to Ms. Rich that his business was a hobby and he didn't need to work at all, and how he loved a job that enabled him to drink and get paid for it as well, and he felt sorry for the customers he wouldn't be able to provide food to because he wasn't going to stay in Florida much longer. He also told Ms. Rich he needed the $150.00 he owed her to pay for the cruise he was going on to the Bahamas so he could play Poker on his vacation. To this date, Ms. Rich has spent several days in bed being sick to her stomach and taking advil for migranes due to the stress this has caused her and her family. She is unable to afford gas in her car, and will have to borrow money to be able to visit her Grandmother in St. Petersburg, FL for the Christmas holiday. Ms. Rich is pleading to be paid the $150.00 that she did indeed earn from this company. She fears Mr. Yousif and his temper, and if left with the impression that Mr. Yousif may not be returning from his cruise to the Bahamas to pay her, perhaps when he is not drinking so much, and more rationale in thought.