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NEW YORK - Payday finally arrived yesterday for 36 delivery workers from China who have toiled for years at restaurants without proper wages.
A federal magistrate ordered the owner of several popular Vietnamese cafes to pay more than US$4.6 million ($7.6 million) to a group of ex-employees who said they had received substandard wages.
The court said the workers, all Chinese immigrants with limited English skills, had largely been living off the tips they earned cycling orders of food around the city for the Saigon Grill chain.
Their salaries ranged from US$340 to US$600 a month, no matter how many hours they worked. A few were able to bring in as much as US$3500 or US$4000 in tips a month by putting in long hours six or seven days a week.
But the court said that income didn't absolve the owner of his responsibility to abide by wage laws.
Judge Michael Dolinger ordered the restaurant to pay back wages and overtime dating to 1999, and to compensate the workers thousands of dollars each for supplying their own transport for the job.
The workers' lawsuit was one of a growing number of legal complaints alleging exploitation of immigrants in low-pay industries in New York and elsewhere.
