CARBONDALE — The longtime favorite eatery Longbranch Cafe and its manager are being sued for unfair labor practices, including wage violations, according to a lawsuit filed by the The U.S. Secretary of Labor.
The suit was filed Jan. 15 in the U.S. District Court’s Southern District in Illinois against the cafe and its manager, Elaine Ramseyer Greenberg. The suit lists 32 individuals as the plaintiffs in the case.
The business is owned and operated by the Dayemi Organization Inc., which is associated with the Sufi religious community rooted in Union County.
The complaint also alleges that Greenberg, in her capacity as general manager of Longbranch, worked some employees longer than 40 hours in a work week without properly compensating for overtime pay — typically time and a half.
“Defendants improperly computed overtime compensation based on tipped employees’ cash wages rather than their regular rates and failed to pay them one and one-half times their regular rates,” the complaint said.