Joe Allen, Broadway Restaurant Hit with Class Action Wage Theft Lawsuit

A class action lawsuit claims that Joe Allen Restaurant (“Joe Allen”), a popular Broadway pre-show eatery located in Manhattan, failed to pay its restaurant workers minimum and overtime wages. The employee who brought the lawsuit alleges that Joe Allen did not keep track of the hours its employees actually worked, instead paying them only for their scheduled hours. The same employee alleges Joe Allen paid workers the tipped minimum wage without giving employees proper notice of the tip credit, and also forced tipped workers to share their tips with employees not entitled to tips, such as a porter. The named employee, who worked as a server and bartender, claims that Joe Allen sometimes required him to arrive at 10:30 a.m. for lunch shifts, complete his non-tipped work, and then purposefully sent him home at about 12:00 p.m. before his scheduled lunch shift started, without paying him a penny. He also adds that he often “picked up” dinner shifts from other employees, which brought his weekly hours over 40, but never received overtime while employed at Joe Allen.