Rouge Tomate Accused of Wage Violations in Former Employees’ Lawsuit

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The owners and operators of New York City restaurant Rouge Tomate are the defendants in a wage and hour lawsuit filed by four former employees. According to the suit, the plaintiffs worked in excess of 40 hours each week without appropriate minimum and overtime wages.

The plaintiffs were employed as food runners, expediters, assistant servers, busboys and bartenders, the case says. The workers claim they were never properly notified of the tip credit to be applied to their wages. Further, the suit argues the plaintiffs should have received at least the full minimum wage instead of a lower tip-credited rate as they spent a significant portion of each workday performing non-tipped duties, including baking, polishing silverware and preparing delivery orders.

The suit goes on to accuse the defendants of regularly appropriating employees’ tips to pay a manager and deducting wages for meal breaks that were not taken. Worse, one plaintiff charges the defendants failed to pay him at all for three weeks of work.