LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — Two of Long Island City's most prominent restaurants have agreed to pay $20,000 to two ex-employees who claimed they were illegally underpaid, court records show.
American Brass and Maiella, situated a few blocks apart on Center Boulevard but owned by the same two-man team, were sued in federal court in February by Diego Cisneros, who worked as a food runner at American Brass from early 2020 until his termination in June 2021.
In his class-action suit, Cisneros said he was paid just $10 an hour, below the state's $15 minimum wage. While New York employers can make up that difference if workers are tipped, the restaurants' owners failed to properly notify workers about their "tip credit," did not include it on their wage statements, and implemented a pooling scheme where workers like Cisneros had to share money with non-tipped employees, the suit says.
Cisneros and fellow workers also spent two hours of each shift doing non-tipped activities like washing dishes, taking out garbage, preparing salads, taking deliveries and moving supplies between Maiella and American Brass, he alleged. Still, the restaurant owners claimed "tip credit" for all of their workers' hours, skirting the minimum wage law, the suit says.
Meanwhile, Cisneros also worked significant hours "off-the-clock," amounting to 46 hours per week, but his paystubs would only reflect his official hours of 38 to 40 — a "time-shaving" policy that deprived him of overtime pay, he said.
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