New York Thai Restaurants Face Unpaid Wage Allegations

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The operating companies and two individual owners of New York Thai restaurants Wondee Siam I and Wondee Siam II are the defendants in a proposed class action lawsuit alleging that the defendants failed to pay their delivery workers proper wages. The suit claims the restaurants illegally treated delivery workers as tipped employees when they were engaged in non-tipped duties for at least 20% of their workdays. According to the complaint:

“Defendants employed the policy and practice of disguising [the plaintiff’s] actual duties in payroll records to avoid paying [the plaintiff] at the minimum wage rate, and to enable them to pay [the plaintiff] at the lower tip-credited rate by designating him as a delivery worker instead of a non-tipped employee.”

The suit also argues that delivery workers were required to work more than 40 hours per week without receiving their required overtime compensation, and that they were not provided with wage statements that specified their hours and rates of pay. This lack of documentation was meant to “take advantage of” the plaintiff and other proposed class members’ “lack of sophistication in wage and hour laws,” according to the complaint.