By Shanya Posses, Law360 (August 29, 2018, 7:39 PM EDT) — A New York federal magistrate judge granted conditional certification of a collective class of employees who say they weren’t paid minimum wage or proper overtime at several now-closed Thai restaurants in Manhattan, holding Wednesday that the workers leading the suit met their burden.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron largely granted a collective certification request by several workers in their dispute accusing the owners of ThaiNY, M-Thai, Thai Rice and Tom Yum of flouting the Fair Labor Standards Act and state labor law. The judge concluded that the employees made the required showing that kitchen workers, delivery people, waiters and cashiers were subject to common employment policies and practices at the restaurants that purportedly violated labor law.
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John Troy, who represents the workers, told Law360 on Wednesday that he believes the restaurant workers are underpaid.
“Always, they work long hours and the restaurants always have a general policy not to pay them overtime,” Troy said.
A representative for the restaurants declined to comment Wednesday.
The workers are represented by John Troy of Troy Law PLLC.
The case is Sarikaputar et al. v. Veratip Corp. et al., case number 1:17-cv-00814, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
–Editing by Alanna Weissman.
The article first appeared on Law360 at: https://www.law360.com/articles/1078144/nyc-thai-eateries-employees-get-collective-cert-in-pay-suit