NYC restaurant owners complain about "frivolous lawsuits" re paying their employees

[no_hypocrisy]

fair compensation per regulations.


A top restaurateur is throwing in the apron, saying he’s done with New York City because a wave of vicious lawsuits, coupled with draconian state regulations, threatens to cripple the industry.

Eateries have paid out close to $30 million in settlements over wage and tip complaints in the past few years -- and that’s just from suits filed by one Manhattan lawyer, Daniel Maimon Kirschenbaum.

The city’s biggest names, including Nobu, Jean Georges, Sparks and Mesa Grill, have forked over millions, and more restaurants are on the hook. The ‘21’ Club reached a tentative $2 million settlement last week in a suit that alleged it stiffed workers on overtime pay and did not properly distribute a service charge to banquet staff.

Numerous high-end New York City restaurants have been sued over wage and tip complaints in the last few years -- most by Manhattan lawyer Daniel Maimon Kirschenbaum (above). He has collected $30 million in settlements (with a 30% fee for himself) from a number of eateries.

"Someone in Albany needs to understand the agenda, what this is really costing the greatest restaurant city in the world. “Money-hungry lawyers, through frivolous lawsuits, are shaking down the very foundation of Manhattan’s restaurant industry,” fumed Joe Bastianich, co-owner of Eataly, Del Posto and Babbo.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/the_lawyer_who_ate_new_york_SO9DZBVJ4hxnr7jY8rDb2J#ixzz1YxsGBRq6

[Ian David]

1. Nobu is where I had sushi for the first time as a kid.

And my mom got drunk on Saki and tried to bull-fight a bus.

[hobbit709]

2. Maybe they shouldn't stiff their staff on wages.

Funny how it's always "frivolous" when they get caught doing something wrong.

[Scuba]

4. Bingo.

[pinboy3niner]

6. +2

[Chan790]

12. Exactly.

Pay your staff in accordance to the law and you don't have this problem. The great honking irony is that these regulations came about because the restauranteurs demanded regulations so that they could have a laid-out written framework because they were getting their asses kicked over employment law violations...now having the regulations, they don't follow them and get sued, then complain about the lawsuits.

[fishwax]

29. indeed n/t

[trumad]

3. Ahhhh poor babies...

Pick up their spatulas and run because of those pesky labor laws.

[madrchsod]

5. so where are they going to move to? china?

[elleng]

27. Joisey?

[xchrom]

7. How hard can it be to pay your people properly? Nt

[hedgehog]

8. We've got some empty storefronts here in town. In fact, they're

trying to rent out the pizzeria/fried fish place again. Some adjustments will have to be made, of course. If people here pay more than $35 for a dinner for two, they expect something extra, like the can of soda the Chinese restaurant throws in!

[Bluenorthwest]

9. Tasting menu with the 'basic' wines at Babbo is $125 per person

The room seats 90. Del Posto will do you seven courses at $145 per person, with wines an additional 125 for a total of yes, $270 a head.
The word 'frivolous' comes to mind in many ways around NY restaurants. The city creeps me out with the high end millionaire chefs not cooking and all the guys from Puebla getting shafted while actually making the food.

[pipoman]

11. I took a group of Marines

including my son to a very nice Italian restaurant in San Diego...this restaurant charged $4 for water..The restaurant has an open kitchen. One of the young Marines had just returned from Japan. He commented, "only in America is your $50 per plate Italian cooked exclusively by Mexican cooks". Sure enough, every cook in the kitchen was Mexican and Spanish was the language of the kitchen staff. The only Italians was the snotty waiters.

[Fuzz]

16. If it weren't for Mexican immigrants we wouldn't have a restaurant industry like we know it.

No exaggeration.

[JustAnotherGen]

10. For what they charge

At Sparks and 21 - they should not be cheating their employees. No sympathy for the owners - they coiled have avoided HUGE payouts if the paid their people fair in the first place.

[blogslut]

13. I want to meet these waitrons and buspeople who make $70-$100,000 a year

I'm quoting Batali's partner, Joe Bastianich, here:

“Plaintiffs are waiters and busboys making 70, 80, $100,000 a year,” he said.

[durablend]

14. Must be a Republican

Delusion comes in all professions....

[dkf]

15. If they can make $60,000 in Hawaii 18 years ago I am sure it's possible in NY.

My brother used to tell me that's how much his co workers made when he was part timing during college. That is why the waiters were stuck there even if they had degrees and were qualified for "better" jobs. The money was too good to get an entry level professional position.

[bengalherder]

28. And you must understand that was 18 years ago

There are a few 'fancy' places that waitstaff command that much. Heck, I've worked in them.

But they are few and far between. They also have a dirty little secret. They are notoriously ageist and lookist if you will. I was told this by one of the first chefs I worked for in a $100 per plate/person California Cuisine joint back when I started in kitchens in '84. You can't have that job your whole life, because there will always be a younger cuter waitron to take your place eventually...

Back then cooks with the experience and responsibility I have now were making $13-17 an hour. Now they make $10 or so, even in those fancy places. I've had to dicker just to get $11 or $12.

I have no pity for restauranteurs who do not pay their staff as well as they should, especially as (in my experience) have a tendency to show off their new houses, cars, boats, bikes to the staff. It's almost as if they want to rub our noses in their fabulous success.

[dsc]

17. waiters at an expensive restraunt I could see that as a possibility

I know tips are split but the waiters do get the lion's share. Assume 20% tip on 20 people served who each eat $100 worth of food that is $400 a night that the waiter likely gets $200 a night. Assume a 5 day workweek and 48 weeks worked. that is 48k in tips alone.

[AshevilleKate]

18. And in our grand state of North Carolina...

A lot of our waitresses make the princely sum of $3.12 an hour. Tips are supposed to raise them up to a "liveable wage." Bus help makes minimum wage, but since that only computes out to about 10,000 a year (full time!) Mr. Bastianich must have inadvertently added a zero to his calculations. You see, in fuzzy math, zeros are worth nothing anyway, so adding one at the end...gotta love it!

(Oh, and it only went from $2.12 to $3.12 recently.)

[Major Nikon]

26. I'd be surprised if they didn't

You're talking about restaurants with sales in the multi-millions. It doesn't take much imagination to see how wait staff can make 6 figures in such an establishment.

[edhopper]

19. Wow

A one sided anti-worker "story" from Murdock's Post. Who'd of thunk it?

[Posteritatis]

22. Heh, yeah. The first sentence alone is so loaded it made my monitor fall over. (nt)

[pnorman]

20. PPay the effing stipulated wages and save money!

n/t

[Posteritatis]

21. About once a year restauranteurs in my town lobby the government to let them not pay their staff

And I mean at all - they don't think they should be issuing paychecks at all, and every year they start whining about having to pay even minimum wage. It's ridiculous.

[eppur_se_muova]

23. Forcing employers to obey their own contracts is "frivolous"?

Yeah, right.

[Major Nikon]

25. It's a Murdoch paper, of course it's "frivolous"

Lawyers who sue to protect the rights of little people are always filing "frivolous" lawsuits, dontchaknow.

[Major Nikon]

24. Yes, it's a pretty sad state of affairs when employers can't screw employees out of money

Leave it to Murdoch to blame the lawyers. Good thing his readers are too stupid to think for themselves.

[mulsh]

30. Perhaps if these restaurants paid their staff properly they

would not be losing so many of these "frivolous lawsuits". I suggest the owners look for a good accountant/bookkeeper instead of who ever they now employ.

BTW Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich must make enough extra income from their TV shows to hire competent NYC based accountants.

[Major Nikon]

31. You have to be able to think outside the box to read the NY Post

The box that most would call reason and sanity.

[durablend]

32. And of course, surprise...surprise

Look at the far-right water carriers in the comments there saying people should be "thanking" the "job creators" for even giving them a job that pays a dollar an hour.

And yet somehow "teh libs" are the elitists :eyes:

[Major Nikon]

34. No doubt they are still waiting to be trickled on

nt

[winstars]

33. Joe Bastianich is a scumbag!!!

Knew somebody who worked in one of his MOTHER'S joints in NY. He is the son who thinks he is the big cheese. He would be a busboy at Denny's if not for his Mom. He sometimes appears on his mother's show on PBS and you can tell that he is an uptight little p---k. Everyone know that restaurants are notorious for ripping off employees.

Read the comments below the story and remember who reads the NY Post!!! Yikes...