A Syracuse, N.Y., restaurant owned by the liberal billionaire George Soros doesn’t pay its tipped employees fair wages, some of those employees alleged in a lawsuit filed this week.
Those employees signed on to a class suit lodged this week against the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que restaurant chain, the Syracuse Post-Standard reported on Monday.
The suit claims Dinosaur failed to properly use the "tipped credit" provision in federal law, which requires employers to make up the difference between tips and pay to meet minimum wage standard. It also says Dinosaur required tipped employees to spend more than 20 percent of their work day doing "side work," which includes setting up dining areas, for which they do not get tipped. The suit says workers should be paid minimum wage for that work.
The suit also claims Dinosaur failed to properly pay overtime wages, "misappropriated" tips belonging to the tipped workers, wrongly required tipped workers to share tips with managers for large events and failed to properly pay workers for shifts exceeding 10 hours. The suit also claims Dinosaur failed to keep accurate records of tips and wages.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday in federal court in New York City by the Fitapelli & Schaffer law firm, according to the firm's web site. It says it seeks to represent "servers, bussers, runners, bartenders" and other tipped employees.
Dinosaur Bar-B-Que is majority owned by Soros Strategic Partners, an investment firm run by George Soros, who bankrolls liberal groups that complain about unfair wages for tipped workers.