Roberto’s Restaurant in NYC Facing Claims of Labor Law Violations

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Roberto’s Restaurant Corp. and an individual owner have been named as defendants in a proposed collective action filed by a former server who alleges the parties violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law. The defendants, which operate New York City’s Roberto’s Restaurant, allegedly underpay their servers, bussers, and bartenders by applying a tip credit to their wages without “satisfying the strict tip credit requirements” of state and federal law. The plaintiff says he was paid at the tipped minimum wage of $7.50 per hour but was given no notice of the tip credit and was forced to participate in a tip pool from which a manager – a non-tipped employee – was permitted to share tips. On top of that, the waitstaff was supposedly required to spend more than 20 percent of each day performing non-tipped duties that were unrelated to their tipped work.

The suit further argues that managers would often alter employees’ hours worked by clocking them out as they approached 40 hours per week. According to the complaint, between June and September 2017, the plaintiff was paid for some overtime hours but did not receive the required time-and-a-half premium rate for all his hours worked over 40 per week. When the plaintiff and another server complained to the restaurant’s owner, he allegedly responded with “you don’t work overtime!” and threatened to fire them.

The case alleges that employees were also not provided with proper wage notices and weekly wage statements and notes that the defendants have faced claims of labor law violations before, as detailed in Marquez v. Roberto’s Restaurant Corp. et al., No. 16-CV-2304.