Chickie's & Pete's servers awarded $1.6M for owed tips

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Monday was a hefty payday for 90 waiters and waitresses from Chickie's & Pete's restaurants.

They are getting checks from the $1.6-million federal suit over tips they've been owed for years.

Owner Pete Ciarrocchi allegedly kept some of the tips for himself.

The restaurant's spokesperson, Kevin Feeley, says the discrepancy was due to what Ciarrocchi feels are complex federal pay regulations.

"The best evidence that, how it's not as easy as some people might think, is that it's tripped up restaurant companies all over the country, hundreds of them," Feeley said.

Payments in a similar $6-million settlement covering about 1,100 workers will go out at a later time.