The father-son duo operating a Delaware County diner were ordered by a federal judge to pay their employees $1.3 million in damages and back wages for illegally seizing their tips, officials announced Wednesday.
Ihsan Gunaydin, the owner of the Empire Diner in Lansdowne, and his son Engin, the diner’s manager, were handed that decision by U.S. District Judge Eduardo C. Robreno after nearly four years of litigation and a five-day bench trial last month.
Federal prosecutors alleged that the family paid its servers $2.83 an hour, well below the minimum wage, but said tips made up the difference. However, management at Empire routinely took 10 to 15% of servers’ tips each week to cover the salaries of kitchen staff and bussers, according to court filings.
The management also failed to pay overtime to employees who worked more than 40 hours a week, prosecutors said. And when investigators from the U.S. Department of Labor came to the diner to inquire about that, prosecutors said, management instructed some employees to lie about the hours they worked.
Engin Gunaydin did not return a request for comment. Nor did his attorney, James Bell.
“Tipped workers in the food services industry rely on their hard-earned tips to make ends meet,” said Jessica Looman, the principal deputy wage and hour administrator for the Department of Labor. “By diverting a portion of these tips, restaurant employers violate federal labor laws and harm workers and their families.”
The settlement benefits...
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