By Jennifer Glickel
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — A former dishwasher at Patsy's Pizzeria is suing the famed Manhattan restaurant chain for making him work excessive hours for below minimum wage pay, the Daily News reported on Tuesday.
Rafael Bernitt, who worked at the East 60th Street branch of Patsy's for three years, said in the suit that conditions for the dishwashers were "nothing short of a modern day indentured servitude," according to the News.
Bernitt, who filed a class-action labor lawsuit in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, said that he and other dishwashers were required to work 10 hours a day, six days a week for a mere $330 each week, the News reported. Conditions improved slightly when the workers received a $20 per week raise in December.
In addition, Bernitt claimed that the dishwashers did not receive sick time, medical benefits, overtime, tips, workman's compensation, or unemployment insurance, according to the News.
"While these eating establishments are New York institutions, there is a dark underbelly," the New York Post quoted Bernitt as saying in the lawsuit.
