In the last three years, we have worked on ten workers’ rights cases, seven of which were on behalf of restaurant workers, one on behalf of fruit stand cashiers, one on behalf of garment workers, and one on behalf of a domestic employee. We have received favorable results for all our clients in the cases that have been completed.

Our largest case involved a lawsuit we brought on behalf of 36 current and former employees of Saigon Grill, a pair of popular Vietnamese restaurants located on the Upper West Side and near Union Square. In conjunction with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), we represented the workers in a five-day bench trial before Magistrate Judge Michael H. Dolinger of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The plaintiffs, 35 delivery workers and one orders packer, were all immigrants from China’s Fujian Province, none of whom spoke English. The workers were paid well below the minimum wage, in some cases less than $2.00 an hour, and did not receive overtime compensation for work weeks that lasted as long as 80 hours. They were also fined, forced to kick back wages to their employers and required to purchase and maintain their own bicycles in violation of state and federal law. Twenty-two of the delivery workers were fired in March 2007 in retaliation for planning to bring this lawsuit, also in violation of state and federal law. In June 2008, the Honorable Michael Dolinger awarded the plaintiffs $4.6 million in damages.

Because of the popularity of the Saigon Grill restaurants and the number of workers affected, this action and a related NLRB proceeding drew coverage from the New York Times, The American Lawyer and New York magazines, as well as other media outlets.

The majority of our other workers’ cases settled just before or during trial. One matter is ongoing.

In addition to these cases, we have worked with AALDEF and the Urban Justice Center on other wage and hour cases involving domestic workers and restaurant staff for more than 10 years.