WEST VILLAGE — Owners of the Fat Cat jazz club pocketed more than $3 million in tips meant for employees over a six-year period, a lawsuit claims.
Twenty-four former and current bartenders and bussers at the Christopher Street spot claimed Fat Cat's two owners took all the tips from drink and food orders instead of giving them to workers between July 2008 to July 2014, according to a suit filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Noah Sapir and Charles Berg took over the pool hall and jazz venue at 75 Christopher St. in April 2005 and implemented a policy in July 2008 in which they kept all tips — both cash and credit — instead of giving them to workers, the suit said.
Workers at the bar declined to comment on the suit.
The staffers' attorney, Robert Kraus, said that owners at the bar started to give tips to workers in the summer after they started negotiations and said it's "an open and shut case."
"We made every attempt to settle this matter prior to filing," Kraus said. "It takes two sides and we didn’t have a willing partner on the other side."
The club pulled in $600,000 or more per year in tips from food and drink sales, with both owners pocketing all the money, according to the suit.
Kraus said they based the total of tips taken in at the club based on estimates from when they started to give them to workers and believe it's a "conservative estimate."
The owners also did not provide workers with accurate statements of wages that covered how long they worked, including overtime, the suit claims.
The lawsuit asks Fat Cat's owners to pay the workers back $150 per work week — or $5,000 total — for each of the 24 workers included in the suit. The suit also asks for payment of attorney fees and to stop the practice of keeping tips.
— Additional reporting by Danielle Tcholakian
