BY TOMOEH MURAKAMI TSE
STAFF WRITER
September 9, 2005, 7:40 PM EDT
Workers at East Buffet & Restaurant in Huntington Station
have filed a federal lawsuit against their employer, saying they
worked 65-hour weeks for as little as $1 per hour and without
overtime pay. They contend managers kept most of the tips left
for waiters and other service personnel.
"They don't even want to negotiate with us," said Michael
Chu, 50. He said management stopped distributing tips after workers
last month protested the firing of a colleague and tried to unionize.
Chu was one of about two dozen workers and their supporters protesting
Friday outside the Route 110 eatery.
"Can you believe [workers make] $1 an hour in wages here
in America?" he said.
Susan Kong, a co-owner, denied all allegations. The workers,
she said, had been paid $3.85 an hour, plus overtime, and tips,
and took home about $2,000 each month. Kong said the dispute stemmed
from waiters and busboys not wanting to share the tips with service
station workers, whose chores include slicing meat and making
sushi.
"They all are lying. They want the whole tip," she
said. Workers divided the tips among themselves, she said, adding,
"This is a buffet restaurant. It's not an a la carte restaurant.
This is teamwork."
With protesters shouting "Boycott, boycott!" behind
him as customers streamed in, Kenneth Kimerling, legal director
of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which
on behalf of the workers filed the lawsuit Thursday in the U.S.
District Court for the Eastern District of New York, said management
distributed about $5,000 in tips weekly.
Workers said customers left them about $15,000 a week in tips.
"The law is very clear that the tips belong to the workers,"
he said.An attorney representing East said he could not comment
on a lawsuit he
has not seen. The lawsuit states most workers were paid in checks
and cash, and that checks to busboys showed they received $66
a week, or about $1 an hour.
Kong scoffed at the figures, saying the protesters would not
have stayed for such little pay. To make things fairer and easier,
she said, the restaurant now pays workers an hourly wage of $13.
A sign Friday
alerted customers that a 12 percent surcharge would be added to
their bills, but tips were unnecessary.
Copyright (c) 2005, Newsday, Inc.
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