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Cipriani Companies
and Other Upscale New York Caterers Fleece Catering Waiters Cipriani operations at The Rainbow Room, 110 East 42nd Street (Bowery Savings building), and previously 55 Wall Street, typically run banquets attended by between 200 and 1,500 guests at $250 or more a head. A 22% "service charge," is calculated off the per head charge. This charge, a tip for the waiters, is pocketed by Cipriani's. Cipriani's and other caterers make the sham arguments that the waiters are paid a high hourly wage in lieu of tips and the "service charge" is intended to pay for the cost of the waiters. The per head charge covers overhead plus a healthy profit margin. Clients understand the "service charge" to be a tip. Tipping is the tradition and standard in New York City. The catering waiters are tired of being denied the compensation to which they are entitled by their excellent and hard work. Up to now, they were afraid to speak out. |
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What The NY Post Says March 29, 2001, Page Six, by Richard Johnson. Cipriani sued over $10M in tips A GROUP of 24 waiters who work the pricey banquets at the Rainbow Room and Cipriani 42nd Street are suing in Manhattan Supreme Court for $10 million in tips they claim they're owed. The banquet waiters - unlike the unionized crew who work at the Cipriani restaurants at the Sherry-Neatherland on Fifth Avenue or on West Broadway in Soho - are freelancers booked for Cipriani through M.J. Alexander & Co. They get paid about $20 per hour to serve guests at the Cipriani catering venues, but they don't get a penny from the 22 percent "service charge" specified in each contract. Robert K. Erlanger, the lawyer representing the waiters, says Cipriani is in violation of labor law statute barring management from retaining "any part of a gratuity or of any charge purported to be a gratuity for an employee." Erlanger says, "They are going to claim the service charge is not a tip. And they are going to argue that these people are not employees. But they are." Cipriani's lawyer, Marshall E. Bernstein, calls the complaint "totally without merit. In respect to the service charge, our client is acting the same way that every other catering facility in the city acts. Indeed, this has been the custom and practice for many decades." |
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Robert K. Erlanger concentrates his practice in civil lawsuits, representing both plaintiffs and defendants. He has been involved in resolving hundreds of conflicts, including those involving commercial contracts, personal and property injury, interntional torts, products manufacturing, medical care, and insurance policies, through negotiation, settlement, and trial. Robert is on the mediation panel for the federal court covering Manhattan, the Bronx, and Westchester. He won a $15 million jury verdict in federal court after a 2 1/2 day trial in a case involving an international airline's participation in a conspiracy to remove an American child from the U.S. and recently, negotiated a $2.7 million settlement in an asbestos exposure case.
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If you ever worked as a waiter for Cipriani and would like to take a shot at getting the tips that you never received and make positive changes on behalf of all banquet waiters in New York City, please join our lawsuit by contacting us at Justice4Waiters@aol.com. Or you may just want to contact me directly at ShyronBJ4W@aol.com so that we can share some of our cater waiter stories. |
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