The Bao and Uluh Restaurants - Class Certification Granted

On May 31, 2024, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York granted class certification to a group of Servers, Runners, Bussers, Bartenders, and Barbacks who worked after October 5, 2015, at The Bao and Uluh. Plaintiffs alleged that the Defendants violated the overtime, minimum wage, and tip credit provisions of the FLSA, and the overtime, minimum wage, tip credit, uniform reimbursement, spread-of-hours pay, wage notice, and wage statement provisions of the NYLL.

According to the U.S. District Judge, Plaintiffs “convincingly established [that The Bao and Uluh] enacted a single set of common practices — which were implemented across both Restaurants and caused injury to all Tipped Workers in similar ways.” The Court found that the two restaurants operated as “a single system” with a shared central management office, and rejected Defendants' argument that the restaurants and proposed class were too dissimilar for class treatment.