Francisco’s Centro Vasco Agrees to Settle Wage Theft Case for $700,000

Francisco’s Centro Vasco, an old-school seafood restaurant that operated in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan from 1979 to 2018, has agreed to settle a wage theft lawsuit for $700,000.  The lawsuit, brought by 17 former employees, including servers, servers’ assistants, back waiters, bussers, runners, bartenders, bar backs, and other tipped employees, claimed the restaurant failed to pay its tipped employees the minimum wage.

According to the lawsuit, the restaurant and its owners unlawfully deducted from the waitstaff’s pay for meal breaks which the employees did not actually take, failed to notify the waitstaff in writing of the tip credit provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act and/or the New YorkLabor Law, allowed managerial employees to unlawfully participate in the tip pool, and retained an additional 4.5% of the waitstaff’s credit card tips.

Attorneys for the waitstaff also say the restaurant failed to provide them with accurate wage statements and wage notices, as required under the New York Labor Law.

‍