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December 16, 2015- The Telegraph reports, “One of New York’s most prominent restaurateurs, who shocked the culinary world last month when he banned tipping at his flagship restaurant, is being sued by two former employees over his tip policy.
Uzzol Siddiky was employed as a “busser” – clearing plates from the tables – for five months this year, from July to November. Kawsar Maruf did the same job, from June 2010 to the end of December 2012.
Both men are demanding that they be paid damages for a failure to pay them the correct wage. They argue that they were paid a lower minimum wage of $5 an hour, the amount given to staff who receive tips, when they should have been paid $8.75 – the amount for those who do not benefit from gratuities. They say that the fact they had to share their tips with other staff, including glass polishers and wine servers, meant that the higher minimum wage should have applied.
“New York restaurant mogul Danny Meyer, the celebrity chef who owns and operates the Michelin star-rated Gramercy Tavern, is the so-called ‘poster child of all that is good about American food today,’” said Jeanne Christensen, lawyer for the pair, in court documents.
“Unfortunately for service employees, all that is good about American food today appears to include the practice of nickel and diming employees out of wages and tips they are lawfully entitled to receive.”
Ms Christensen accused Mr Meyer’s group of “an attempt at ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’; that is, to unlawfully augment the wages Defendants pay to tip-ineligible employees with the tips earned by Plaintiffs and other service staff through their hard work and dedicated service to customers.”
Mr Siddiky and Mr Maruf said they were taking the case as a class-action suit, on behalf of over 100 other employees in a similar position.”
Click her for the Danny Meyer federal lawsuit