As NYC restaurateurs approach the end of summer, a good time for reflection and rejuvenation, perhaps the following cases should be included in their summer reading lists.

Mercado Little Spain – Back Pay Lawsuit

It’s hard not to love Chef José Andrés. Not only is he an immensely talented chef, but the man is also a renowned humanitarian focused on feeding the world’s most impoverished populations. Hell, even the lawyer suing him called him “an American hero.”

Yet, despite such accolades, the beloved chef must respond to a new lawsuit claiming that employees of his Mercado Little Spain were shorted wages in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and various New York labor laws. As we see with most of these lawsuits, the allegations include, inter alia, violations of statutory minimum wage, overtime and spread of hours pay. In addition, the plaintiff is setting up a potential “collective action,” which is a legal mechanism allowing other similarly situation individuals (i.e., other employees allegedly shorted pay) to join the action.

In response to the lawsuit, Chef José and ThinkFoodGroup blamed the wage transgressions on a payroll glitch “that caused both underpayment of some employees and overpayment of others.” Moreover, both Chef José and the company have publicly vowed to make whole any employee affected by the apparent “glitch.”

The plaintiffs’ lawyer, however, wasn’t having it. In their amended complaint, they claim that Andrés and company are merely trying to do damage control as they purportedly pocketed money by having tipped employees perform non-tipped side-work while illegally paying them less, as if they were receiving tips.

Gramercy Tavern – Racism Allegations

Danny Meyer’s Gramercy Tavern was hit with another employment discrimination lawsuit this summer. In the latest one, a female African American server alleges that managers at the popular fine dining establishment did nothing to address another employee’s racist insult. Specifically, the suit alleges that the employee called the complainant a “black bitch” while the managers shushed her when she spoke up about the incident.

The complainant resigned this February and argues that managers created a “hostile work environment” by allowing diners and other employees to discriminate against her based on her race and gender including another instance in which managers joked about her braided hair, a protected characteristic under New York law. Union Square Hospitality Group has not yet publicly responded to the allegations.

As we have seen in recent years, these lawsuits continue to be on the uptick and should be taken very seriously by NYC restaurateurs.