Mecha Noodle Bar, a Seaport ramen shop that touts its worker-friendly policies, is facing a class action lawsuit launched by a staff member who alleges wage theft and improper tip pooling.
The civil lawsuit filed on Thursday in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston was brought by Carolina Montoya, 27, of East Boston, who worked as a server at Mecha starting in December 2023. Montoya alleges that during the several months she was employed, the restaurant allowed managers to be paid out of the collective tip pool, which is a violation of the Massachusetts Tips Act. In so doing, she says they also violated state minimum wage laws by not paying out the amount owed to servers.
The filing is the latest in a series of local lawsuits brought by restaurant workers alleging wage theft as result of illegal tip pooling practices. Earlier this month, the state’s attorney general’s office fined Zuma, a sushi restaurant in the Four Seasons, $1.8 million in tip pool violations. Rooftop restaurant Contessa, which is housed in The Newbury Boston hotel, recently settled a lawsuit with 68 of its former and current employees for similar violations.
Montoya, who is from Colombia, said shortly after she began working at the restaurant, she found herself helping many of the Spanish-speaking kitchen staff sort out inconsistencies in their paychecks. She then started taking a closer look at her own paycheck and noticed that her tips were very low.
“I never really received a full paycheck,” said Montoya, who has worked in the restaurant industry for nearly six years. “Nobody really knew the math and the numbers were very inconsistent.”
This was all more more disconcerting to Montoya, she said, because the restaurant has a policy of donating a portion of its proceeds to charitable causes.
“They said they were donating $25,000 or $50,000 a month,” Montoya said. “But no money for kitchen staff, servers, or bartenders... It felt weird. It just didn’t make any sense.”
The ramen chain was founded in 2013 in Connecticut by cofounders Tony Pham and Richard Reyes and has 10 locations, including one in Brookline. Mecha promises affordable insurance, paid time off, and parental leave for its workers, and runs a foundation called Eat Justice, which donates a portion of the company’s profits toward employee scholarships.
After repeated attempts to ask for clarification, Montoya decided to sue, claiming in her filing that she “frequently complained about not receiving all tips to which she was entitled” and that management refused to let her see the tip out sheets to verify where the tips were going.
“In the state of Massachusetts you have to provide someone payroll and employee records on request,” said Lou Saban, who is representing Montoya in the case. “Their refusal is something I haven’t encountered before.”
Attorneys for Mecha did not return a request for comment.
Janelle Nanos can be reached at janelle.nanos@globe.com. Follow her @janellenanos.