On Friday, August 28, 2015, Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP filed a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against Koi Group Inc, Koi NY LLC d\/b\/a Koi Restaurant, and Koi NY Downtown LLC d\/b\/a Koi SoHo, (collectively, “Koi”). The lawsuit is filed on behalf of all servers, bussers, runners, bartenders and other “Tipped Employees” who work or have worked at Koi Restaurant located at\u00a0the Bryant Park Hotel or Trump Soho in New York City.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit alleges that the owners and operators of Koi have instituted widespread practices and policies that violate their Tipped Employee’s rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and New York Labor Law (“NYLL”). The lawsuit alleges that Koi failed to pay Tipped Employees the minimum hourly wages to which they were entitled. Specifically, Defendants failed to properly utilize the \u201ctip credit\u201d provision that allows them to pay an hourly rate below the regular minimum wage (currently $8.75 in New York).\u00a0The lawsuit alleges that Koi failed to notify Tipped Employees, verbally or in writing, of the tip credit provision, as required by the FLSA and the NYLL. The lawsuit also claims that Koi required Tipped Employees to share a portion of their tips with \u201cnon-tipped\u201d employees, such as sushi chefs.\u00a0 Additionally, the lawsuit claims that Tipped Employees were required to spend a substantial amount of time performing non-tipped side work. This is important because an employer cannot take advantage of the tip credit provision of the FLSA and the NYLL, which allows them to pay a lower hourly rate, while at the same time requiring these employees to share their hard earned tips with other employees who are not entitled to tips, and requiring them to perform non-tipped side work for more than 20% of their shift. The lawsuit further alleges that the owners and operators of Koi violated the NYLL by failing to provide its employees with proper wage notices and wage statements.<\/p>\n