By Daniel Wiessner
Oct 23 (Reuters) - A lawsuit filed on Friday involving the pay practices of Chili's operator Brinker International is seeking to strike down New York state's lower minimum wage for workers who earn tips, which it claims fuels the sexual and racial harassment of workers.
The proposed class action in federal court in Brooklyn by three former Chili's employees claims that New York's policy, which most other US states share, allows Brinker to force employees to rely on tips and exposes
them to unlawful discrimination.
"Brinker promotes a culture in which tipped service employees make customers 'feel special,' even at the expense of their dignity and safety," the lawsuit says.
Brinker did not respond to a request for comment. The New York Attorney General's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the challenge to the state law.
Many worker advocates have for years called for the elimination of sub-minimum wages that companies may pay to workers who earn tips under federal and most state laws, as long as tips make up the difference.
In New York, where the minimum wage is $16 an hour or $17 in and around New York City, food service workers who earn tips may be paid $10.70 or $11.35 an hour. The federal tipped minimum wage is $2.13 an hour, compared with the traditional minimum wage of $7.25, and applies in states that do not set their own minimums.
RELYING ON TIPS
Advocates say that because tips are discretionary and unpredictable, they should supplement workers' incomes rather than make up most of their pay. The lawsuit against Brinker says that relying on tips forces workers to tolerate conduct such as sexual harassment and customers' potential racial bias.
The plaintiffs' lawyers said in the lawsuit that they plan to expand the case to include a nationwide class of Chili's workers.
Brinker operates more than 1,200 Chili's restaurants in the US, including 36 in New York. The company also owns Maggiano's Little Italy, an Italian restaurant chain with about 50 US locations.
The lawsuit claims that Chili's reliance on customer ratings to determine workers' schedules, shifts and table assignments is also unlawful. The ratings system can be racially biased, the lawsuit says, and can make it difficult for servers to reject unwanted advances from customers for fear of a poor rating.
The named plaintiffs, three former employees at a Chili's in the Glendale section of Queens in New York City, claim they were routinely subjected to sexual advances and inappropriate comments and that management did not adequately protect workers from harassment.
(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Rod Nickel)
