Le Bernardin is the Latest Hit by Employee Lawsuit

Thorn in the restaurant industry's side Maimon Kirschenbaum filed a class action lawsuit today against yet another high end Manhattan restaurant: Le Bernardin. According to the suit, owners of the recently renovated four star seafood palace Eric Ripert and Maguy Le Coze neglected to pay front of house tipped employees overtime, minimum wage, and spread of wage pay, and they allegedly pooled tips and shared them with non-tipped employees like managers and beverage directors. The paperwork argues that the number of plaintiffs, which they believe to number more than 50, merits a class action suit.

Le Bern joins the company of Daniel Boulud's empire, Alto, '21' Club, the Batali Empire, Brother Jimmy's, and Artisanal, just a handful of other restaurants that have been hit by a similar suits in the past year.

As of this afternoon, the Le Bernardin team was unaware of the suit, but they comment, "We are going to review this but Le Bernardin complies with all wage and hour laws and takes great pride in our relationship with all our employees." Download and read the full complaint here.
· All Coverage of Le Bernardin [~ENY~]
· All Coverage of Restaurant Industry Lawsuits [~ENY~]