Nobu Servers Sue Eateries Over Wages
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The servers at Nobu, Nobu 57, and Nobu Next Door are suing the Japanese restaurants, claiming that the eateries failed to pay them their full wages.
A waitress at Nobu 57 between 2006 and 2007, Alisa Agofonova, and a waiter between 2001 and 2006, Aaron Pou, brought the class action suit on behalf of every member of the wait staff at the three restaurants over the last six years, which the suit places at more than 100 individuals. The co-owners of the restaurants, Drew Nieporent and Richard Notar, are also named as defendants in the suit.
The servers say the restaurants willfully failed and refused to pay them at minimum wage, according to court papers. The New York State minimum wage is $7.15 an hour. Restaurants in New York are not required to pay servers minimum wage salaries as long as they are compensated with tips, but the Nobu servers say the managers of the restaurants allowed non-tipped employees to dip into the tip pool and even “retained portions of tips for themselves.”
“Nobu will vigorously defend the litigation, and the restaurants believe they’ve been in full compliance with both state and federal wage and hour laws,” a lawyer for Nobu, Carolyn Richmond, said.
