After three paychecks bounced Friday, some employees of a local Asian-cuisine restaurant chain decided to go on strike and take it to the streets.
When workers at the 43rd Street Tasty Buddha tried to cash paychecks, they received a notice that insufficient funds were in the payroll account, said Marissa Jane Pollack, a 21-year-old employee. The first employee’s check for about $340 bounced, she said.
Instead of working Saturday and Sunday, about eight employees stood at the intersection of Northwest 16th Avenue and Northwest 43rd Street holding signs and handing out leaflets to curious motorists. “Don’t give em your money until we get ours,” one of the signs read.
Tasty Buddha franchise owner Parker Van Hart confirmed that three of the 35 paychecks he wrote Wednesday did bounce on Friday.
Van Hart said that because of earlier instances of check fraud, he opened a new payroll account. On Friday, that account had money to pay employees, but Van Hart said he thinks the bank teller didn’t know there was a second account.
When the workers talked with Van Hart on Saturday morning, Pollack said he attributed the late paychecks to the company’s financial state.
“He was just giving us a load of malarkey about how we’re in debt a $100,000, which isn’t really that much,” she said. “You see how busy this place is all the time.”
Van Hart confirmed the business has made about $500,000 in gross sales in 2013, and he said he took a loan of about $135,000 in 2012, which is about one-third paid.
The checks cleared Saturday morning, after Van Hart phoned the bank, he said.
However, the group of employees plan to continue protesting, Pollack said.
They compiled a list of demands including fixing a kitchen air conditioner and introducing a zero-tolerance policy for sexual harassment and bullying.
“We realized this is an opportunity to address other concerns,” Pollack said, also citing sanitation issues.
In a statement on the company’s Facebook page on Saturday, Van Hart wrote that “the other complaints made regarding sexual harassment and dangerous working conditions are complete crap.”
He included his phone number in the statement and invited questions from the public.
“My business and the way I treat those around me is an open book,” he wrote.
Joe Richard, a union organizer who has represented other restaurant workers, said he is negotiating with Van Hart about the employees’ demands.
They have prepared a statement to file with the National Labor Relations Board, but as of Monday, Pollack said it was unfiled.
In the meantime, Van Hart said he is unclear on what the employees want him to do.
Pollack said negotiations will continue this week.
Striking Tasty Buddha cook Dustin Horn protests outside the restaurant Saturday. Employees say there has been a history of bounced checks.
