If you remember in October, Saigon Grill workers were awarded a lot of money because the owners refused to pay their delivery-people and other employees minimum wage for over 70 hours of work per week (even Columbia students protested). Now, after more investigations, New York Attorney General Cuomo has announced that the owners have been charged with 11 counts of Failure to Pay Wages, 127 counts of Failure toKeep Records, and 16 counts of Receipt of “Kickback” Wages for “failing to pay their workers the minimum wage for four years.” 

Allegedly, in order to keep the appearance of running a their business cleanly, the owners would report paying regular wages and force workers to cash checks and return the money.  Bwog respects the owners right to due process, so we will not  continue to speculate on their guilt or innocence before trial, but the large settlement in the civil suit with the workers is not a good sign.

Full press release from the New York AG’s Office after the jump.

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According to the New York Times, the long-running civil case between Saigon Grill and its workers ended on Tuesday in a $4.6 million verdict in favor of the workers. “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.”

Juniors and seniors with particularly sharp minds will remember spring of 2007, when protests against local restaurant Saigon Grill were the activist item du jour. In March of that year, the restaurant locked out its workers rather than raise pay and labor standards (among other abuses, the workers were only being paid $1.60 an hour for more than 70 hours a week). Columbia students quickly joined the cause, culminating in a large sit-in/protest in May (which was later uploaded to YouTube).

The deliverymen, at least, are obviously happy. “‘It was worth the fight because we were treated badly for so long,’ [one deliveryman] added. ‘I never imagined we would receive so much money.’”

In March, the news broke that Saigon Grill had locked out its delivery workers after they demanded fair wages, and they’ve been picketing the restaurant’s three locations since. Today, Bwog took a trip down to 90th and Amsterdam to check out the scene, where about ten Columbia students joined as many workers in handing out flyers, gathering signatures for a petition, and booing passersby who continued, stonyfaced, into the restaurant.

“We are not slaves! Give us back our dignity!” read one sign. Protesters boomed in the rain, “Two dollars, no way! What do we want? Fair Pay!”

According to Asian American Alliance member Ryan Fukumori, the Saigon Grill management had instituted an “ethnic hierarchy” by which Latino cooks and busboys were paid minimum wage while the delivery workers, mostly immigrants from China’s Fujian province (none of the men at the protest spoke English), received only $1.60 per hour (Spec has details of other abuses). The workers, organized by the Chinese Staff and Workers Union’s Justice Will Be Served! campaign, are now calling for a boycott–which must have unsettled patrons inside the packed eatery. Ownership has declined to comment, but after a month with no delivery business (according to a flyer, the three locations bring in $2 million per month collectively), Bwog would guess that they’d be hurting.

Meanwhile, the Grill may lose another kind of business–they’re currently on Columbia SDA’s list of preferred vendors, getting first crack at catering free food events. The list is up for revision in September, and SDA administrator Robert Taylor said in an e-mail today that the business could be taken off with enough evidence of abusive practices.

Although Bwog doesn’t think Columbians will be ordering Saigon Grill anytime soon anyway.

- LBD