Canlis, a famous Seattle restaurant, settled a wage theft class action lawsuit filed by its servers for $1.45 million dollars. The class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of 309 current and former restaurant workers.
The lawsuit alleges that the restaurant charged a 20 percent fee to customers and stated on menus before mid-2022 that “All of [the] charges are distributed to our team,” although none of the staff received any portion of this amount.
The lawsuit also claims that employees were not paid for training on their first day, a tradition in the restaurant industry called “staging.”This practice is common among many fine-dining restaurants, where the days of training are not paid. A statement by the lawyers representing the workers noted that “nobody works for free” and that although the practice is a long-standing tradition in the industry, it will no longer be practiced at Canlis.
Finally, the lawsuit alleges that the restaurant did not provide its employees with undisturbed breaks. Washington law requires that servers are to be provided with ten-minute rest breaks for every 4 hours of work, to be “relieved of duty and be allowed to truly unplug from [their] job during that time.”
If you or someone you know are victims of wage theft at a restaurant or have questions about workers’ rights, contact the attorneys of Pechman Law Group at 212-583-9500 for a confidential consultation. We have recovered over $30 million for victims of wage theft.
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