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A former Coffeebar Redwood City employee filed a class action lawsuit against the coffee chain, alleging wage theft and failure to provide accurate wage statements.
Kevin Semo, who was an hourly employee at Coffeebar in Redwood City from June 2025 to May 2026, filed the civil suit in San Mateo County Superior Court on Oct. 12. The suit names three Coffeebar subsidiaries and Gregory Buchheister, the business’s founder and manager of each location, as defendants.
Buchheister and Coffeebar could not be reached for comment.
Semo seeks to represent cashiers, baristas, kitchen, and float staff who worked at Coffeebar locations in Redwood City and/or Truckee, Olympic Valley, Northstar, Menlo Park, and Sunnyvale during the four years before the complaint was filed, according to the complaint.
In January, Semo raised concerns about fair tip distribution directly with Coffeebar management in Redwood City, the complaint said. He was allegedly told employee gratuities are used for commissary expenses, such as paying bakers who make the pastries sold, and that the remaining tips were pooled and distributed among employees across different Coffeebar locations, according to the complaint.
Semo alleges he requested copies of his wage statements and payroll records around the end of March but did not receive them. His employment was terminated on May 8, and he alleges he never received all of the pay he was owed, including tips.
The complaint alleges that defendants also “knowingly and intentionally failed” to provide employees with accurate itemized wage statements. As a result, employees could not “promptly and easily determine” what they were owed, the suit alleges.
Semo alleges in the complaint that Coffeebar has not maintained accurate records of all gratuities received and that itemized wage statements did not accurately state the gross wages earned, the total hours worked, or the net wages earned during each pay period.
The Superior Court of San Mateo County will hold a case management and trial setting conference on Jan. 13, 2027.
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