WASHINGTON (Diya TV) — The conflict between workers and management at well-known Washington, D.C. Indian restaurant Rasika Penn Quarter has reached new heights over the last month as employees and managers have confronted each other openly over wages and working conditions. Workers have picketed, complaining of intimidation and retaliation, as management insists that its pay system is an inevitability based on escalating labor expenses.
Last summer, when Washington’s tipped minimum wage rose to $10 per hour, Rasika’s servers were converted from tipped hourly employees to a commissioned system. For this new plan, servers take home a 13.5% commission on sales, backed by a percentage of tips beyond the restaurant’s 20% service charge. Owner Ashok Bajaj, who’s a supporter of the commissioning system, defends that this plan provides a lasting solution in times of rising labor costs. But employees say the shift was done unilaterally, slashing their pay.
An employee briefing explaining the new pay policy was issued to staff, asking that they sign off on the deal or look for other work. Server and bartender Isa Duzova remembered the manager’s ultimatum: “They were saying, ‘Hey, if you don’t like it, the door is over there. It’s not going to change.'”
Grievance against the system of commissions stretches back before the current unionization drive. Members from Unite Here Local 25 have reported workers complained to the D.C. attorney general’s office last year about possible violation of wage law. Although no confirmation or denial of an investigation has come from the attorney general’s office, complaints have been made about pay structure in front-of-house work.
Tensions were further heightened when news broke of Bajaj’s $7.1 million house purchase. Employees, already irked by lower earnings, saw the purchase as contradictory to assertions that increased wages jeopardized the restaurant’s survival. Bajaj brushed aside the criticism, saying, “How I live, where I invest, it’s nobody’s business.”
