Chef Daniel Boulud’s Restaurants Accused of Violating Waiters’ Rights

Renowned Chef Daniel Boulud, whose restaurants have been recognized as the best in New York, has been sued by a former employee for allegedly violating New York and federal wage and overtime laws regarding busboys’ and waiters’ rights to retain all tips received by customers. According to the complaint filed in New York federal court by lawyers for a former worker at Bar Boulud and Boulud Sud, the restaurants improperly required tipped restaurant workers to share their tips with polishers, expeditors, and maître d’s, employees who do not “customarily and regularly” receive tips. The class action lawsuit also alleges that the restaurants violated the so-called 80/20 rule by requiring the waiters and busboys to spend more than twenty percent of their time doing side work, including cleaning trays, setting up tables, polishing glasses, sweeping floors, and attending pre-shift meetings.  Furthermore, the attorneys for the workers allege that the restaurants failed to pay their waitstaff the proper overtime rate for all hours worked over 40 in a week, paid employees the incorrect minimum wage rate, and failed to pay “spread of hours” each time an employee worked 10 hours or more in a day.