On June 12, 2013, the Alycia Carrillo (“Plaintiff”) filed a complaint in U.S. Federal Court on behalf of herself and all others similarly situated that worked at The Ainsworth and Ainsworth Park (collectively, the “Ainsworth Bars”), as class representative, alleging that Paige Hospitality Group (“Defendant”) unlawfully violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) and New York Labor Law (NYLL). The plaintiff is seeking to recover unpaid minimum wages, overtime compensation, spread of hours pay, misappropriated gratuities, misappropriated service charges, unlawful deductions, uniform-related expenses and other wages.
The Ainsworth Bars are owned, operated and controlled by the Defendant and are run as a “premier operations and hospitality company, specializing in high-end event planning and event production” with “plans to reach a national level.” Since opening in September 2009, The Ainsworth serves as the flagship location for the Defendants “upscale sports bar and restaurant empire,” which combines sports with posh amenities such as bottle services, DJs and high-end bar food. The Defendants own nine different bar, club and restaurant locations. The Plaintiff was employed by the Defendants as a server at the Ainsworth Bars from March to May of 2013.
According to the Plaintiff, the Defendants routinely fail to pay proper minimum wages, overtime wages, and spread-of-hours pay. Should the Court agree, the Defendants will have violated the FLSA and the NYLL. Normally Defendants can defend themselves for not providing employees a minimum wage salary by following the tipped minimum wage rate. However the Plaintiff alleges in this case that will not excuse the Defendants as they failed to inform their employees about their rights under the FSLA and NYLL and distributed a portion of the Plaintiffs tips to workers who do not “customarily and regularly” receive tips.
The Plaintiff further alleges that the Defendant unlawfully retained service charges receive by customer hosting private events, which customers were led to believe would be paid as gratuities to Plaintiff. This is a violation of the NYLL.
Lastly, the Defendant unlawfully failed to maintain Plaintiff’s mandatory uniforms or pay them the required weekly amount for uniform maintenance and related expenses. More specifically, the Defendants required the Plaintiff and members of the class to wear a uniform consisting of a black tank top or black long-sleeve shirt bearing the Ainsworth “A” logo, black leggings, black dress pants, and black leather boots, or black Converse All Star sneakers. The Defendant never reimbursed the Plaintiff or other members of the class for their expenses. The Plaintiff alleges that the Defendant violated the NYLL by failing to help with these costs.
In sum, because the Defendant operates clubs, bars and restaurants that violate several laws under the FLSA and NYLL, the Plaintiff brought a class action lawsuit that will enable her and many similar class employees to recover.
The New York City Employment Lawyers of Fitapelli & Schaffer have successfully represented many club, bar and restaurant workers for unpaid wages including Minimum Wage, Overtime and Tips.