Hooters, the restaurant chain famous for employing waitresses with visibly erotic bustlines, is in hot water this morning. It seems eight former Hooters employees filed a class-action lawsuit against the boobs-and-food eatery, claiming that "management systematically stole their tips at four Bay Area restaurants." (Which, if you know anyone in the service industry, is rumored to be a practice not as uncommon as it should be.) And this wasn't some scant change either; the ex-Hooter employees say that the management theft "amounted to about $40 per day per restaurant over the past four years."

The ladies' suit specifically says that restaurant's general manager, Donald Speckhals, swiped tip money that was supposed to go to bus boys, bartenders, and hostesses. Said "slush fund" stealing is alleged to have happened at San Francisco, Fremont, and Campbell Hooters. Which: vile.

But what say you, service industry readers? Have you too come across this kind of thievery at more, shall we say, artisan eateries?