News

by Andrew Tangel and Matthew van Dusen

A Palisades Park restaurant has paid $48,000 to former employees who picketed the eatery over unpaid wages.

The wages of seven workers, including cooks and sushi chefs, earned at the Dokdo Sarang Restaurant on Broad Avenue in 2009 were finally repaid in late November, said Elizabeth Koo, a program associate at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York.

“I had to pay rent, and I wasn’t able to make the rent payments on time,” B. Na, 53, a former cook at the restaurant who lives in Fort Lee, said with Koo translating from his native Korean.

“I support two children and they attend private school, and so it affected me making their school payments,” added Na, who said he received $14,000 of the settlement and worked at the establishment for about eight months.

“I suffered greatly.”

Koo said the fund helped organize the workers, who sent a letter to their former employer demanding payment. When that didn’t work, she said, the employees distributed leaflets and picketed the restaurant in March.

William Massey, an attorney with the New York law firm Gladstein, Reif & Meginniss LLP, said he was prepared to sue on behalf of workers earlier this year, but the restaurant agreed to settle out-of-court in May.

The eatery, which opened in early 2009, is now doing business as Palisades Restaurant. It sits directly across from Borough Hall and had paper signs in the window on Tuesday identifying it as “Palisades The Family Restaurant.”

David Yoon, its owner, blamed a former business partner for the unpaid wages.

The former partner, Yoon said, created financial troubles for the restaurant by failing to pay workers, utility bills and vendors.

“It was a nightmare,” he said.

Yoon said he’s now the restaurant’s sole owner, and the business is on a “normal track.” He said he had to borrow money to pay the workers’ settlement, but he’s relieved to have the issue behind him.

“I’m very happy,” Yoon said. “Now everything’s normal.”

https://www.northjersey.com/news/bergen/111904419_Eatery_settles_unpaid_wages_suit_for__48K.html