Employees at Prominent New York City Bar and Restaurant Irish Exit Allege Years of Unpaid Wages, Suit Says

NEW YORK, Oct. 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- In a class action lawsuit filed on October 3, 2014 in New York federal court, three former employees of The Irish Exit, a bar located on Second Avenue in Manhattan, claim that they and their colleagues were not paid minimum wages, overtime wages and gratuities, along with other forms of compensation to which they are entitled.  The lawsuit alleges that the Plaintiffs and all service employees were not paid any hourly wage whatsoever, never received paychecks and were never provided W-2s.  According to the Complaint, Defendant John L. Sullivan, who is the owner and operator of the Irish Exit as well as many other bars in New York City and throughout the United States including the Johnny Utah's chain, has run other establishments in a similarly unlawful manner.

The lawsuit alleges that The Irish Exit servers, bartenders, bussers and all other service staff would regularly work more than 10 hours per day on their shifts, and if they worked a double shift, more than 12 hours per day.  According to the suit, many of the service employees worked more than 40 hours per week and often worked between 60 and 70 hours per week and the only form of compensation they received was cash from customer tips, which they were required to pool and share with non-service staff.

The suit further alleges that the service staff worked many private parties for which there was a mandatory gratuity and/or service charge that management retained and did not distribute to the service staff.   In addition, the Complaint states that the service employees were required to promote "all you can drink" specials to customers, for which they received no compensation at all given that it was a non-tipped role.  The Complaint also alleges that in connection with this unlawful wage activity, owner John L. Sullivan used cash registers with no point-of-sale systems and asked managers to transfer cash from these registers to a safe in his office for his personal use.

"This is a particularly egregious example of an employer abusing his position of authority to deprive hard working employees of their wages.  The federal and state wage laws are intended deter and prevent these types of employer abuses," said Jeanne Christensen and David E. Gottlieb, co-counsel for the Plaintiffs. 

The case is entitled Miller, et al. v. 978 Second Pub d/b/a The Irish Exit, et al., Civil Case No. 14-cv-07981 in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York.  Additional information about the case can be obtained from, and all inquiries may be directed to, Jeanne Christensen at Imbesi Christensen in New York, New York at (212) 736-5588 or Douglas H. Wigdor and David E. Gottlieb at Wigdor LLP in New York, New York at (212) 257-6800.

About Wigdor LLP:  Wigdor LLP (http://www.wigdorlaw.com) is an employment law firm specializing in high-profile, complex litigation and investigations as well as civil and criminal trials.  They can be reached at (212) 257-6800 or [email protected].

About Imbesi Christensen: Imbesi Christensen (http://lawicm.com) concentrates its practice in consumer class actions, all areas of employment law and complex securities arbitration. They can be reached at (212) 736-0007 or [email protected].

SOURCE Wigdor LLP