Can an employer make you pay back money from items that were not properly rung up?

Working in a restaurant there is a lot of food and drink always rung in. Well in some case's where tables have ordered drinks and they were on the check when the check was received. When payed the drinks were not on the check. Servers tend to transfer the drinks to other tables and keep the $x.xx for themselves. It has gone one for a couple of months and no part of the management team noticed until someone said something. The management team is now telling all employees that they are investigating all transactions and will make the employees pay back all money that was taken through the transfers. Is this allowed by the employer?

If they STOLE the money, YES, they can be forced to pay it back. They could be prosecuted and charged with theft.

Yes, because the servers are enriching themselves at the expense of you employers business. This is prohibited by law. the employer therefore has the right to get back what has been taken from them.

No questions.. It is theft. (period)

It is theft, and the employees responsible should be fired. If the amounts are too high , they should also be prosecuted.

Ah, I am very familiar with that kind of scam, mainly b/c when I was in college, I worked at a place where alot of servers pulled down a ton of money using it. To me, it wasn't worth the risk.

Yes, they can do that, because that is technically theft. An employer cannot make you "make up" for a drawer shortage (honest mistake) or pay for a lost or damaged item, unless you agreed to it in ADVANCE, etc.

But what they are describing is an acceptable, because it is technically an error in accounting and they took money home that didn't belong to them, therefore the employer has the right to correct it.

On the flip side, you don't have to take the employer's word for it, they MUST show you documentation (the actual checks) to prove you guilty-as-charged. Otherwise...how do you know that managment isn't scamming you?

It's a lot less painful than what could legally happen, that the staff members concerned could be prosecuted for theft. Provided the management could prove it.

They cannot deduct it from your paycheck, nor can the hod back a paycheck. They can fire you though, and if it was willful theft they can also prosecute you.
The best thing to do in this case would be to jointly negotiate a way to settle it.
The only way the restaurant can legally force you to pay them back is by prosecuting you for theft. That requires time on their part and there is no gaurantee that they can prove the theft occurred.
However, if they are going to fire anyone who does not pay them back, one has to decide whether it is worth it to keep the job and avoid the trial.