Per Se, where a dinner will run you upwards of $300, will distribute $500,000 compensation to current and former employees after striking a deal with the New York Attorney General.
Lionel Bonaventure / Getty Images
Per Se, the Manhattan eatery with $300-plus prix-fixe menus, will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to current and former staff after an investigation by the New York Attorney General found the restaurant violated New York labor law.
The restaurant misled customers booking special private and group dining events by including a 20% "service charge" to the bill. Customers may have believed that fee was going to the wait staff, according to the investigation, when in fact it went into company coffers.
From January 2011 to late 2012, waiters and service staff didn't see any of the "service charge", the settlement between the attorney general and Per Se shows. Though reasonable customers could think this charge referred to gratuity, it said, the money was not distributed to workers after the events.
Instead, the fee went towards the restaurant's general expenses, including "cost of goods, rent, marketing, utility, maintenance, and employee wages and benefits, among other things," the agreement states.
That's in violation of the Hospitality Wage Order, a state labor law that went into effect in January 2011, which requires an employer to prove, "by clear and convincing evidence" that notification "is sufficient to ensure that a reasonable customer would have understood" that these kind of service charges are not tips.
Here's how Per Se's notification read:
Richard Drew / Associated Press
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