New York, NY: An employment class action lawsuit has been filed by a former server for the Mallozzi Group, alleging the restaurant and catering business fails to pay its serves their tips, and has cheated those servers out of at least $1 million during the past two years.
The lawsuit, filed in Albany by Ryan Picard, claims that Picard worked for Mallozzi' as a server for all of 2012 and most of 2011. During that time he alleges a mandatory 20 percent "service personnel charge"was added onto customer' bills but was never distributed to him and at least 100 other servers.
Employees were apparently paid a flat hourly rate, according to the suit, and were told by Mallozzi management that when a customer asked if they received tips to respond that they did. The lawsuit claims that the employees suffered substantial losses resulting from Mallozzi' alleged withholding of those gratuities.
