Aug. 17—A former bartender and server at White Rabbit Gastropub is suing the downtown Frederick restaurant, alleging retaliation, after she says the restaurant's management cut her shifts when she accused them of violating federal labor law.

The lawsuit, filed by former employee Carolyn Pancurak on Friday, names McFly's Inc., a Maryland corporation that does business as White Rabbit Gastropub; the restaurant's general manager, Larry Fellows; and one of its owners, Kenneth MacFawn, as defendants.

Fellows and MacFawn did not respond to an emailed request for comment by Tuesday night. Other attempts to reach them by phone, email and social media were unsuccessful.

Pancurak is represented by Joseph Gibson, managing attorney at the Employment Law Center of Maryland on West Church Street.

The nonprofit is selective in taking cases, Gibson said. He and his team try to defend principles that concern employees across the state.

"One of them is that any Maryland worker has the right to raise the issue of whether they're being paid fairly and legally, without fear of retaliation," Gibson said. "That is federal law, that is state law, and it is being violated. And that is the principal issue here."

In the lawsuit, Pancurak alleges White Rabbit regularly required tipped employees to stay after closing to complete non-tip-producing tasks, such as sweeping, cleaning the ice machine and organizing dry goods.

Since the work often took Pancurak and her coworkers multiple continuous hours to complete, according to the lawsuit, she believed the restaurant's management was violating a U.S. Department of Labor rule that restricts the amount of non-tipped labor that tipped employees should be required to perform.

Pancurak was hired at White Rabbit in December for $3.63 per hour, according to the complaint.

Shortly after being hired, Pancurak complained to the restaurant's management about the alleged violation, according to the lawsuit. When her complaints were not addressed, she started drafting a letter with another White Rabbit employee in July on behalf of the restaurant's tipped workers.

In the drafted letter, which is quoted in the lawsuit, Pancurak and her coworker tell the restaurant's management that their team is not refusing to perform the tasks in question, but is refusing to do so "without the proper legal compensation."

Before Pancurak and her coworker could finish the letter, the general manager learned of it, according to the lawsuit, and told the restaurant's front-of-house employees to meet with him if they had any problems.

Pancurak met with the general manager, Fellows, on July 8, and asked him to fix problems she described, according to the lawsuit.

At first, Pancurak said in the lawsuit, Fellows seemed willing to do so.

"The meeting ended with a handshake and a smile," Pancurak said in an interview on Tuesday.

But after the meeting, according to the lawsuit, Fellows called one of the restaurant's owners, MacFawn. After the phone call, Fellows sent Pancurak home, telling her that White Rabbit was "overstaffed."

The restaurant's management then removed Pancurak from the online system they use to schedule shifts, according to the lawsuit, and cut the employee's shifts from about five per week to one.

In doing so, the lawsuit argues, the restaurant's management "constructively discharged" Pancurak, a legal term meaning they made her working conditions so intolerable that she had to leave, Gibson said.

Fellows also cut the shifts of another server down to one per week in August, after the server complained about the amount of non-tip-producing work that tipped employees were being asked to perform, according to the lawsuit.

That employee was also forced to leave, because he was "unable to survive on such a small amount of pay," according to the lawsuit.

The management's "campaign of retaliation ultimately had its intended chilling effect," the lawsuit reads; the letter prepared by Pancurak and her coworker about the restaurant's alleged violations of federal labor law was never sent.

In the lawsuit, Pancurak demands a jury trial and asks for a judgment in excess of $75,000.

She asks the court to order White Rabbit to reinstate her to a position comparable to the one she had, or award her pay for lost time, including benefits.

She also requests that the judgment include money to cover attorneys' fees and the emotional distress she's experienced because of the situation.

It's been a difficult time for Pancurak. Since her husband is temporarily disabled and unable to work, she has supported the two of them. She starts graduate school next week and has been searching for a new job.

She said she feels disappointed about how her time at White Rabbit came to an end. She started working there because it was her favorite restaurant and she wanted to put down roots in Frederick, she said.

"To have this happen, seemingly out of nowhere, was obviously financially devastating — not to mention just the anxiety that comes along with it, and the sleepless nights. And the depression is just kind of crushing me," she said.

"I really wanted to work there," she continued. "I really wanted to have that be my new home."