Now, Eater reports that "frequent suer-of-restaurants" attorney Maimon Kirschenbaum filed yet another class-action suit against owners Jessi and Jennifer Singh last month. The suit, identical to the previous one, alleges that the two pocketed all tips and paid staff under minimum wage.
Per Eater: "Employees Rakesh Raju and Benson D’Silva claim they regularly worked more than 40 hours a week and were paid a flat rate of $600, regardless of the time worked."
Read the full story here. Read the full 15-page complaint (PDF) here.
Babu Ji opened in June 2015.
Previously
14 comments:
And the hits just keep on coming.
numbers are substantial and may signal the end......
The numbers add up quickly when you take ALL the tips. What were the owners thinking? Illegal and unethical and attorneys love these type of cases.
Do they still tack on a surprise "Administrative Charge" at the end of the bill, supposedly to provide all employees with a living wage in lieu of a tip system?
didn't understand the attraction of this place, indian food like everywhere else but for twice the price.
If they had a no tipping policy then what tips were the owners taking? This is sounding more complicated...
When owners or the rich want stuff for free, it infuriates me: they didn't get rich by doing stuff for free and they don't let people eat at their restaurant for free, so why would workers work for free or work for less money? The hypocrisy is astounding.
Have we as a society that become so detached from other's live that denying someone that works for you of a living wage is ok? If these accusations are true then I hope the owners have to pay big (or bigly)
@9:59 a.m.
I didn't eat there until this summer when the hype had died down a bit, but I thought it was really good and definitely a cut above the rest of the indian restaurants in the east village. The wine we had was terrible though, had almost turned, and the meal wasn't cheap.
Of course, if they're stealing tips and paying the waiters less than minimum wage, I hope they are litigated into dust.
Separately, this whole "no-tipping so we can pay a living wage" is an absolute scam to steal tips. Restaurants are barred from taking any share of tips to service staff, but they can take as much as they want from a "administrative" or "service" fee. The restaurants that have joined this trend have seen waiter revolts, and are backing away from it. The proprietors of this movement are total scum pretending to be giving more to their staff when they're actually paying them less.
Not sure I believe the plaintiffs. Paying below minimum wage is clearly wrong. Servers objecting to how much they are paid at gratuity included pricing establishments is fine but I find it funny that they never had a problem with the difference in compensation between the front of the house vs. the back of the house.
@4:11
I agree with a lot of what you say, but, I will just add, that Danny Meyer was one of the early movers in this no tipping trend, and he seems to run a pretty good operation. So it can be done properly, and I think, if done properly, it is probably a better system than our current tipping system.
I also thought Babu Ji was good, but a bit expensive. Malai Marke is my go to for Indian, as it should be for everybody.
Being in the inflatable labor union rat !
Eaten there a couple of times and I don't recall every seeing "no tips" nor being discouraged to tip. If I recall correctly I tipped 20% like I do everywhere else - perhaps this is the sort of thing they were pocketing.
Sounds like Babu Ji has bit the dust:
http://gothamist.com/2017/03/02/babu_ji_wage_theft_lawsuits.php
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