Two Sue NY’s Atoyama Sushi for Allegedly Unpaid Wages, Illegal Tip Credits

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

The operating company of New York City’s Atoyama Sushi, 36 Toyama Sushi Inc., and two individuals with control of the business are facing a proposed collective action alleging certain employees were not paid proper wages. The two named plaintiffs claim they and similarly situated workers were ostensibly hired as tipped delivery employees yet required to spend “considerable” stretches of their workdays performing non-tipped, non-delivery-related work around the restaurant. According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs and proposed collective members were never paid appropriate wages for their work, including minimum, time-and-a-half overtime, and spread-of-hours wages.

More specifically, the lawsuit claims the defendants accounted for the plaintiffs as delivery workers for payroll purposes as a means to utilize an unlawful tip credit on the workers’ pay. Under New York state law, the case reads, employers cannot take a tip credit on workers’ pay if the individuals’ non-tipped duties exceed more than 20 percent of each work day.

“This has allowed [the defendants] to avoid paying [the plaintiffs] at the minimum wage rate and has enabled them to pay [the plaintiffs] at the lower tip-credited rate (which they still have failed to do),” the case claims.

Worse, the complaint alleges the defendants forced the named plaintiffs to sign documents every day in order to get paid that listed false tip amounts and incorrectly noted break times.