On Friday, May 20, 2022, Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP, filed a collective and class action lawsuit against Eight Oranges Inc. and Chibaola Inc., owners of The Bao and Uluh Restaurants in Manhattan, for unpaid wages under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and the New York Labor Law (“NYLL”). This lawsuit seeks to recover minimum wages, overtime compensation, unlawful deductions, tip misappropriation, spread of hours pay, and other damages for similarly situated workers. Affected employees include servers, runners, bussers, bartenders, barbacks(collectively, “Tipped Workers”) who work or have worked at The Bao located at 13 St. Mark Place, New York, NY 10003 (“The Bao”) and Uluh located at 152 2nd Ave., New York, NY 10003 (“Uluh”) (together the “Restaurants’”).
Specifically, the lawsuit alleges Defendants paid Tipped Workers at or below the “tipped” minimum wage rate because the company failed to provide proper notification of the tipped minimum wage rate or tip credit provisions as required by the FLSA and NYLL. Tipped Workers were also forced to share tips with employees who were ineligible to receive tips under the FLSA and NYLL, such as managers, expeditors, soup dumpling cooks, and the dessert cooks, who had no customer interaction. Additionally, Tipped Workers were unlawfully deducted an hour for lunch whether or not they actually took the break. Tipped Workers were also required to purchase their uniforms without reimbursement. Furthermore, affected workers were not compensated for spread of hours premium pay when working shifts of ten (10) hours or more, as required by NYLL. Finally,Defendants failed to provide its Tipped Workers with proper annual wage notices as well as accurate weekly wage statements with each payment of wages mandated by the NYLL.
If you, or anyone you know, has worked for The Bao and Uluh Restaurants and has questions about how this lawsuit may affect their rights, do not hesitate to give us a call at (212)300-0375. You can also view the filed complaint here. The restaurant industry is unfortunately commonplace for a variety of wageviolations. As a tipped worker, it is important to know if you are being paid correctly or may be owed pay. Call us for a free phone consultation at (212)300-0375 and ensure you aren’t leaving any of your hard earned wages on the table. You can also visit our website here.