Diva in trouble for paying below minimum wage?!

[jonbastonin.livejournal.com]

Just saw this and I cannot believe they were trying to get away with paying their employees less than $5 an hour!

Will be going to Namaskar from now on...food is better there anyways.

www.wickedlocal.com/somerville/news/x767223217/Workers-claim-owner-of-Diva-Lounge-in-Somerville-exploited-them#axzz1LWHHppM7

Comments

[phoenixy.livejournal.com]

Disappointed but not surprised--wage and hour violations are endemic to the restaurant business.

endemic

[rmd.livejournal.com]

yeah, that was my reaction, too.

Re: endemic

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Thirded. If you had full insight into the books at Namaskar, I would not be surprised if you found a similar story there. Diva may be worse than other area restaurants, but it may also just have had employees who got support in speaking out.

[skate97.livejournal.com]

I've heard bad things about them for years but nothing confirmed. Namaskar it is for sure.

[enhf94.livejournal.com]

This post reminded me of this: http://www.tuftsdaily.com/2.5519/racism-at-diva-lounge-1.592780?pagereq=1

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

It's still allegation. Nothing has been released or confirmed by either party. While it wouldn't surprise me, it also wouldn't surprise me to find that it's happening in many restaurants in the square.

I'll reserve my judgement until the investigation is over.

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

This.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

:)

[daviscubed.livejournal.com]

I've always thought their service was pretty bad. Now I know why - you get what you pay for!

Not surprised

[myfatcat.livejournal.com]

I cannot say I am surprised, the food and service at Diva are subpar.

[eredien]

Darnit; I was really hoping to go to Dosa Factory in Central in a few months but since they're all owned by the same company, the workers there may be getting screwed over, too--is it better to go, or better not to?

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

Better to go. Workers are being exploited everywhere. What are you gonna do... you can't stop living.

better NOT to go

[jonbastonin.livejournal.com]

Better to go? No way...they are trying to get away with (allegedly) paying $4.90 an hour!! While the owner lives in a mansion? Seriously?

The employees can find somewhere else to work.

This is about as offensive as it gets and I cannot believe people are not more offended by this. Yes, it probably happens elsewhere too, but if I KNOW it's happening there is just no way I can support it.

Re: better NOT to go

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

I would suggest that you look at it the other way--don't rule restaurants out based on unfair labor practices, rule restaurants in based on fair labor practices.

Re: better NOT to go

[eredien]

I agree that you should definitely rule restaurants in based on good labor practices. I also agree that not every restaurant is going to be sterling, but there is a difference between, say, restaurants that pay minimum wage where working there is a drag but at least you get paid fairly, and restaurants that pay below minimum wage and deliberately hire workers desperate for a job and unfamiliar with their rights to get a few years' worth of labor out of them before they become aware they are not getting treated in a legally correct or ethically ok manner.

If you don't send a message to the restaurants which have poor labor practices by not going there to spend your $, what incentive are they going to have to change? If you keep going, they see, "we don't have to change because we still get your money." If you don't go, they see, "we have to change because otherwise we won't get your money."

I have other problems with Diva that have stopped me from going there (a few years ago on Valentine's Day they were handing out flowers--but only to straight couples!, plus the one time I did go there for a work function, I didn't like the food and found the waitstaff really rude when I asked them what was in one of the buffet items), but now that I know that Dosa Factory is run by the same people and they exploit their workers at one location, I really don't feel comfortable going there until I know they have changed their practices across the board. Just because they got caught in one restaurant doesn't mean that they will change at the others, unless provided with incentive to do so.

Obviously, the government can only provide so much incentive (as the $70,000+ in back taxes attests). What incentive it can provide is big, and slow, and sometimes ineffective up until the last resort of things like being tried in court. It's the people who go to these places who must provide the rest, and we make our decisions quickly, whenever 200 individual people decide in five minutes where to go for lunch.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

You can seek out the restaurants that you know pay fair wages, actually.

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

And do those restaurants serve food that was produced by workers who are treated fairly? How about the workers who produced the linens on the tables, the furniture or the silverware. How about the animals that provided the meat they serve, were they treated humanely/fairly? Where do you draw the line?

Sign Currently Hanging On Diva Window

[m-b-w.livejournal.com]

Wanted

Servers
Hostess
Cocktail Waitness [sic]
Buser
Barbacks
Foodrunners