Inman Park restaurant employees protest working conditions

ATLANTA - A group of workers at an Inman Park restaurant are speaking up to demand better wages and working conditions.

On Tuesday, workers at the Middle Eastern restaurant Delbar delivered a letter to their managers asking for a safer work environment, paid time off, and their schedules made two weeks in advance.

As part of their demands, the workers are asking the restaurant to pay them a minimum wage of $25 an hour instead of the $5 base pay plus tips that they are making now. Currently, $2.13 an hour is the state minimum wage for servers who can receive tips in Georgia.

The workers also requested a proper air conditioning system.

"The heat in the kitchen and in the restaurant in general is unbearable - above 80 degrees in the dining room and above 100 degrees in the kitchen," employee Sea Johnson said.

In their letter, the workers also demanded an end to racism, sexism and favoritism and to be treated with dignity.

The group's demands are in solidarity with several other demonstrations by service industry workers that took place across the South.

An employee named Al told FOX 5 that the management of the restaurant works very hard to make sure everyone gets equal opportunities and offers people the chance to move up. He also said that has not seen any sort of racism or sexism.

Additionally, Al said that he doesn't respect the workers who are doing this. He says they are just trying to destroy the image of a restaurant that has worked so hard. Al said that the owner started with zero and worked his way up and now people are wanting to "pocket watch" him and take as much as they can because they think they have the right to take his money just because they helped him make some of it.

"We live in a capitalist society and this is how the world works. If you don't like it, you can just move on," Al said.

Al also said that the person who organized the protest was fired for performance reasons and has a history or organizing these type of protests at other restaurants and retail establishments and Delbar management was not aware of their involvement.