Results tagged “saigongrill”

A federal judge awarded $4.6 million in back pay and damages on Monday to 36 delivery workers at two Saigon Grill restaurants in Manhattan. The decision is the culmination of over a year of boycotts and vocal protests from the mostly-Chinese immigrant workers, who were fed up with their abysmal work conditions. With the help of Justice Will Be Served and a law firm working pro-bono, they sued the owner of the popular Vietnamese restaurant, one Simon Nget, a Cambodian refugee who built his business from scratch.

A judge has finally ruled on a long-simmering dispute between a restaurant and its deliverymen. Last March deliverymen at the popular Vietnamese restaurant Saigon Grill, which has locations in Greenwich Village and on the Upper West Side, demanded a raise from owners Simon and Michelle Nget. The deliverymen reasoned that since the chain was pulling in more than $2 million a month, they ought to earn more than $120 for a 75-hour week.

City Council members Jessica Lappin and Alan Gerson have introduced a bill that would pass tickets received by food deliverycyclists and bike messengers on to their employers. The fines, which range from $100 to $300, are supposed to encourage restaurants and delivery firms to firmly encourage employees to cycle safely in the city, aside from being killed themselves.

There's a new group of servers accusing a restaurant of paying sub-minimum wages - former employees of the two upscale Mr. Chow locations. One of the servers also accuses restaurateur Michael Chow of kicking him in the stomach! The three filed a lawsuit yesterday in Manhattan Federal Court.

A year ago, waiters at Chinatown restaurant Jing Fong accused management of taking tip money to pay dim sum cart ladies. Now, another restaurant's managers are under fire for taking tips from servers, but the restaurant is decidedly more upscale. Waiters at Telepan, which got a 25 for food in the most recent Zagat guide, tell NY1 that managers have been helping themselves to tips, which is illegal in NY State: Waiters can be paid below minimum wage (at Telepan, they make $4.60/hour) as long as they receive the tips.

[Former water Femi] Joseph showed NY1 a stack of tip sheets that detail how the tips are divided each night. Looking at this blank tip sheet one can see that managers are boldly listed as one of the groups that get a cut of the tips at the end of the night.

Continue reading "Telepan Servers Claim Managers Are Taking Tips "

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg signed a City Council bill that requires businesses with bicycle delivery workers to improve its bicycle safety measures into law. Read all about bill 24-A, which requires businesses to supply helmets, to make sure the delivery guys wear them, and to make sure the bikes are safe, as well as 58-A, which requires signs about bicycle safety and laws to posted in English, Spanish or whichever language is spoken at the business, here. City Councilman Alan Gerson initiated the bill in the fall of 2004 (why it took so long is unclear) and Mayor Bloomberg said about the legislation:

In addition to enhancing the safety of pedestrians traversing the City’s streets, these bills will help protect our City’s hard-working delivery personnel, many of whom are immigrants who speak a language other than English. Immigrants form the backbone of our City’s workforce and have helped re-energize our economy, and this bill will ensure that they are given additional protection.

Workers at Vietnamese restaurant Saigon Grill have gone on strike - and have also been locked out by the owners - for over two weeks. Now, the workers have filed a lawsuit against Saigon Grill for a wide range of labor violations.

- And really, who doesn't want to cuddle up with a plush ham (or pork chop, or T-bone). [via The Food Section]

Where is your favorite non-American BBQ from? And did anyone else find it interesting that Moskin found the Second Annual Big Apple Barbecue too crowded, so she and her crew hightailed it for Chinatown? We're thrilled that Moskin is focusing on the less sexy but equally delicious Asian styles of cooking pork ribs (perhaps because Gothamist grew up with these kinds of spare ribs, we never really thought of them as BBQ, we just considered them "char siu"), we're surprised that a Times reporter is so wimpy. Gothamist is a huge wimp, and we, like thousands of other New Yorkers, managed to fight our way for some 'cue at the block party. We imagine Danny Meyer is calling up the Times right now.

J. Ralph, Composer