Graziella’s Italian Bistro, Westchester Burger Company Hit with Lawsuit Over Labor Abuse Claims

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Graziella’s Italian Bistro, Westchester Burger Company, and the restaurants’ owners are facing a proposed collective and class action filed in New York by two former employees over a slew of alleged labor violations.

According to the suit, the plaintiffs were hired as bussers at Graziella’s but also worked at the defendants’ Westchester Burger restaurants in White Plains, Rye Brook and Mt. Kisco, New York, as well as Stamford, Connecticut. The plaintiffs allege that despite their job titles, they were assigned different roles on an as-needed basis, including valet attendant, chef and dishwasher. The workers say they were even tasked with handling personal errands for the restaurants’ owners, such as landscaping their homes and taking care of their pets. For each job the plaintiffs performed, the suit claims, the men were paid below both the minimum wage and lawful tip-credit rates.

“Plaintiffs should have been compensated at different rates based upon the work they performed,” the complaint reads, adding that the ex-employees should have received at least the full minimum hourly wage for shifts during which they spent 20 percent or more of their time performing non-tipped duties.

Although they supposedly worked an average of 66 to 70 hours each week, the men were generally paid for just 39 hours and deprived of time-and-a-half overtime and spread-of-hours wages, the lawsuit claims. When the workers were sent home due to slow business, the suit adds, the men were not paid at all for the time they worked before being dismissed.

The plaintiffs further charge that their wages were subject to unlawful deductions for broken vases or dinnerware, and that they were not reimbursed for the cost of maintaining their uniforms.

Further still, the suit accuses the defendants of fostering a hostile and abusive workplace where employees were often yelled at for trying to take breaks and threatened with termination should they speak to anyone about their working conditions.

The case points out that it brings claims “nearly identical” to those detailed in a 2012 lawsuit filed against some of the same defendants. Since the case was settled, the suit says, the defendants “have not ceased their unlawful practices and continue to engage in egregious federal and state labor law violations.”