On January 20, 2015, in the case of Flood v. Carlson Restaurants Inc., Judge Analisa Torres of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York granted Plaintiffs’ motion for a nationwide conditional collective action certification, court-authorized notice, and expedited discovery. Plaintiffs originally commenced this action on April 17, 2014, on behalf of themselves and all similarly situated current and former tipped workers – including servers, bussers, runners, bartenders, barbacks, and hosts – employed at T.G.I. Friday’s ...
Continue Reading →6 JAN
As of December 29, 2014, a new bill has been signed into law amending various aspects of the New York Labor Law (“NYLL”). This includes various changes to the Wage Theft Prevention Act (“WTPA”), and how the NYLL interacts with limited liability companies, contractors, and successor employers. One of the major components of the new bill is the repeal of the WTPA’s annual wage notice requirement. Outside of the hospitality industry, which must still issue new pay notices to their ...
Continue Reading →12 DEC
Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP filed a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against the owners of “The Russian Tea Room”, located at 150 W. 57th Street, New York, New York 10019 on behalf of all servers, bussers, runners, baristas, bartenders, barbacks, and other “Tipped Workers” who have worked there.
The lawsuit alleges that the owners of this restaurant have instituted widespread policies which violate the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) ...
20 NOV
On November 19, 2014, Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP filed a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against the owners of “The Palm” restaurants, including New York locations such as: “The Palm” located at 250 West 50th Street; “The Palm” located at 837 Second Avenue; “The Palm Too” located at 840 Second Avenue; “The Palm Restaurant” located at 206 West Street; “The Palm Restaurant at Huntting Inn” located at 94 Main ...
Continue Reading →20 NOV
On November 19, 2014, Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP filed a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against the owners of Souen Soho, Souen Noodle, and Souen 13 (the “Souen Restaurants”) on behalf of all food preparers, salad preparers, dishwashers, pantry workers, food packagers, servers, bussers, delivery persons, and other “Non-Exempt workers” who have worked at these restaurants.
The lawsuit alleges that the owners of these restaurants have instituted widespread unlawful policies ...
Continue Reading →14 NOV
Recently, a class action lawsuit filed in 2009 against the Midtown strip club Rick’s Cabaret has resulted in the return of over $10 million dollars in back wages to the club’s current and former dancers and entertainers. Rick’s Cabaret instituted a policy by which it refused to pay its dancers and entertainers any wages whatsoever, and even charged its dancers $60 per shift. Rick’s Cabaret also collected 2 of every 20 “Dance Dollars” that dancers received through credit card payments ...
Continue Reading →12 NOV
Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP filed a class action lawsuit on November 12, 2014, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against the owners of “Tolani”, located at 410 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10024, on behalf of all bartenders, barbacks, servers, bussers, runners, line cooks, food preparers, dishwashers, and other “Non-Exempt Workers” who have worked there.
The lawsuit alleges that the owners of this restaurant have instituted widespread policies in violation of the Fair Labor ...
Continue Reading →12 NOV
Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP filed a class action lawsuit on November 12, 2014, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against the owners of “SideBAR”, the Union Square location of “Little Town”, “Village Pourhouse”,“Hudson Terrace”, “Tres Carnes”, and “House of ‘Que” (the “Defendants”), on behalf of all servers, bussers, runners, bartenders, barbacks, and other “tipped workers” who have worked at either of these locations.
The lawsuit alleges that the owners of these restaurants have instituted ...
Continue Reading →12 NOV
Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP filed a class action lawsuit on November 12, 2014, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against Mexican Radio Corp., the owners of the “Mexican Radio” restaurants located at 19 Cleveland Place, New York, NY 10012 and 537 Warren Street, Hudson, NY 12543 (collectively, the “Mexican Radio Restaurants”), on behalf of all servers, bartenders, runners, supervisors, and other “tipped workers” who have worked at either of these locations.
The lawsuit alleges ...
Continue Reading →4 NOV
Recently, the United States District Court for the Western District of New York denied Defendant Crab Addison, Inc.’s (“Crab Addison”) motion to dismiss a Plaintiff class’s minimum-wage claim under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) alleging that Defendants paid the Plaintiff class less than the full required minimum wage pursuant to a “tip credit”, while having them spend a significant amount of time performing non-tipped duties. In its prior decision, the Court granted Defendant’s motion to dismiss the FLSA minimum-wage ...
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