Judge grants Conditional Certification of Collective Action in the United States District Court Southern District of New York

Alonzo Baez v. Mariscos Ramirez, Inc. d/b/a Marisco Centro and Zolio Ramirez a/k/a Chelo Ramirez, individually, and Radame Abreu a/k/a Roy Abreu, individually, Docket No.: 1:23-cv-06954

Plaintiff, Alonzo Baez on behalf of herself, individually, and on behalf of all others similarly-situated, filed a collective action lawsuit in the United States District Court District Southern District of New York against Mariscos Ramirez, Inc. d/b/a Marisco Centro and Zolio Ramirez a/k/a Chelo Ramirez, individually, and Radame Abreu a/k/a Roy Abreu, individually, alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), the New York Labor Law (“NYLL”), and the New York Comp. Codes, Rules, and Regulations (“NYCCRR”), including the failure of Defendants to compensate Plaintiff for overtime wages.  The claims of the case are as follows:

• Plaintiff worked for Defendants – – a New York corporation that operates a Manhattan restaurant and its two owners and day-to-day overseer.  Plaintiff Romero worked for Defendants as a server from in or around October 2021, through on or about May 9, 2023.
• Specifically, Defendants required Plaintiff to work, and Plaintiff did work, beyond forty hours in a workweek, yet Defendants willfully failed to pay Plaintiff the minimum wages due under the NYLL, or the overtime wages due under the FLSA and the NYLL, due to the combination of an improperly claimed tip credit and an unlawful automatic meal break deduction policy.
• Additionally, Defendants were not permitted to claim a tip credit against Plaintiff’s wages due to Defendants’ failure to provide proper notice of their intention to do so, as well as requiring Plaintiff to spend more than twenty percent of her shift and/or more than two hours a day performing non-tipped side work. Notwithstanding their ineligibility to claim tip credit, Defendants did so anyway.
• Moreover, Defendants automatically deducted thirty minutes each shift from Plaintiff’s hours worked for a meal break, despite not permitting Plaintiff to take an uninterrupted meal break. Defendants paid Plaintiff at the tipped minimum wage, which was below the non-tipped minimum wage rate that New York law requires, for all hours that Plaintiff worked, even those hours that she worked in a week over forty, with the exception of the hours that Defendants automatically deducted as breaks, for which Defendants paid Plaintiff nothing.
• Defendants paid and treated all their non-managerial tipped employees, such as servers, runners, bussers, bartenders, barbacks, delivery persons, and hosts, in the same manner.

Defendant violated Plaintiffs’ rights guaranteed to them by the overtime provisions of the FLSA, the NYLL and the NYCCRR.  Additionally, Defendants violated the NYLL by failing to provide Plaintiffs with any wage notice upon hire or throughout the relevant period; and provide Plaintiffs with an accurate wage statement on each payday.

Certification of Collective Action

In this case, pursuant to the request of the Plaintiffs, the Judge reviewed claims that the Plaintiffs brought forward alleging that there are additional workers in the same “class” (performing the same or similar duties) whose rights have been violated.  On October 21, 2025, the Court ordered the approval of a collective action for, allowing the case to proceed as a collective action enabling any current and former employees who were not paid properly to join the lawsuit and seek redress for Defendants’ failure to compensate them in accordance with the law.

If you or a person you know worked for the Defendants named in the lawsuit during the time period of December 2016 – present or has information that may be relevant to this case, contact Borrelli & Associates, P.L.L.C. as soon as possible through one of our websites, www.employmentlawyernewyork.com, www.516abogado.com or any of our phone numbers: (516) 248-5550, (516) ABOGADO, and (212) 679-5000.

Notice of Court Authorization – Alonzo Baez

Notice of Court Authorization – Alonzo Baez(es)