Victory For The Workers Of Saigon Grill!

This week a long and hard-fought battle finally came to a glorious conclusion for the deliverymen of Saigon Grill. For years the owners of the New York City chain restaurant had grossly underpaid and overworked their employees who brave the streets to bring customers their orders. Despite the threat of losing their jobs, the workers brought their complaints up to the legal system and now they can finally be compensated to the tune of $4.6 million dollars.

From The NY Times:

A federal judge has awarded $4.6 million in back pay and damages to 36 delivery workers at two Saigon Grill restaurants in Manhattan, finding blatant and systematic violations of minimum-wage and overtime laws.

In a decision dated Monday and released on Tuesday, Magistrate Judge Michael H. Dolinger of United States District Court in Manhattan found violations of federal and state wage laws in awarding up to $328,000 to some of the deliverymen. On issue after issue, Judge Dolinger ruled against Saigon Grill and its owners, Simon and Michelle Nget, saying they paid $520 a month to many deliverymen who worked more than 260 hours each month. This meant their pay came to less than $2 an hour, far less than the federal and state minimum wage.[...]

Judge Dolinger found that the company had often illegally deducted pay — from $20 to $200 — when deliverymen committed infractions like letting the restaurant door slam on their way out or failing to log in a delivery. The case covered wage violations from 1999 to 2007.

The judge concluded that Saigon Grill should pay not just back wages but also damages because the owners, he said, had so blithely ignored the law.

With so much injustice going on in these times, it is nice to see some good news like what happened in this case. The deliverymen deserve every last penny the judge awarded for the way the Nget's treated their employees. Not only did Saigon Grill get what they deserve as well, but as the article points out that many other restaurants have taken heed of this and improved conditions for many more deliverymen.