Budtenders sue Curaleaf in MD for distributing tips to managers

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Employees of the cannabis dispensary chain Curaleaf sued the company on Thursday, alleging its method for distributing tips illegally includes people in management roles.

The plaintiffs sued in Maryland federal court, asking for class-action status on behalf of customer-service employees, known as budtenders, who have worked at the company at any time in the past three years.

They say Curaleaf violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and unjustly enriched itself by distributing tips to managers.

According to the complaint, each store has about 15 to 18 budtenders and three or four leads, who supervise budtenders, as well as one assistant manager and one store manager. Tips are divided among budtenders and leads based on hours worked.

The complaint states that leads “receive a larger portion of the tips than do Budtenders, even though the Budtenders perform the customer-facing work.”

Curaleaf, which operates recreational and medical dispensaries in 14 states, has locations in Reisterstown, Columbia, Montgomery Village and Frederick. According to Forbes, it is the world’s biggest publicly traded cannabis company.

The plaintiffs are Gabriella Beck, who worked at Curaleaf’s Reisterstown dispensary from April 2024 until last month, and Ronnie Matthews, who has worked at its Montgomery Village location since December 2021. They were joined by four more current or former Maryland employees after the lawsuit was filed.

“Defendants’ actions in failing to compensate Plaintiffs and other similarly situated employees … were willful and not in good faith,” the complaint states.

The Fair Labor Standards Act states that an “employer may not keep tips received by its employees for any purposes, including allowing supervisors to keep any portion of employees’ tips.”

A Curaleaf spokesperson said the company was aware of the lawsuit and denied it distributed tips illegally.

“We categorically deny these allegations and fully intend to defend against this lawsuit,” the spokesperson stated. “Curaleaf’s tipping policies are designed to be fair, transparent, and in compliance with all applicable laws.”

“We take these matters seriously and remain committed to upholding fair labor practices across all of our locations,” the statement continued. “We stand by our policies and look forward to setting the record straight through the legal process.”

Beck and Matthews are represented by Molly Elkin, Sarah Block and Rachel Lerner of the Washington, D.C.,-based labor law firm McGillivary Steele Elkin.

In an interview, Block said leads likely received hundreds of dollars per month in tips that should have gone to budtenders. Block said companies that pay more than the tipped minimum wage, which in Maryland is $3.63 per hour, often act as if they are not subject to FLSA rules on the distribution of tips.

“That’s just not how the law works,” Block said.