By Steve Wishnia

Two massage workers at a New York City spa are trying to get their jobs back after the National Labor Relations Board formally accused their employer of having fired them illegally last November.

“They have consistently treated us unfairly,” Tian Xiao May Qing, speaking through a translator, told reporters outside Liangste Wellness at 150 East 55th St. on Sept. 19. “When we complained, he fired us.”

Last November, in a conversation on the WeChat messaging app, she and Shu Lian Wendy Feng complained to spa owner Xiaozhe “DJ” Liu about their scheduling and workload. He told them “‘I have to talk to my manager,’” May Qing said. “A half hour later, we were fired.”

Or, as NLRB regional director John D. Doyle put it in the complaint issued Aug. 18, “On or about Nov. 2, 2022, via WeChat, Respondent’s employees Tian Xiao ‘May’ Qing and Shu Lian ‘Wendy’ Feng concertedly complained to Respondent regarding the wages, hours, and working conditions of Respondent’s employees, by concertedly reporting work-related concerns directly to Respondent’s owner. On Nov. 2, 2022, Respondent discharged Tian Xiao ‘May’ Qing and Shu Lian ‘Wendy’ Feng.”

That, the complaint said, constituted illegally “interfering with, restraining, and coercing employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed” by Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act.

A worker who answered the door at Liangtse Wellness said he did not want to talk to a group of reporters, telling them “I’m not the manager.” The law office representing the company before the NLRB did not return a phone call from Work-Bites.

Liangtse Wellness is a global chain founded in China in 1997. It has more than 500 locations on five continents. The 55th Street spa offers massages and acupuncture, with signs in the window reading “Embrace natural wellness” and “Nourish your Chi with ancient wisdom.”

May Qing and Wendy Feng both started working at the spa in 2021, and quickly objected to the way they were paid. Liangtse Wellness charged $168 for a massage, but the worker who did it got only $25—and there was no base rate. They got paid per massage.

“No customers, no pay,” Feng said.

Their wages were changed last October to a flat rate of $120 a day, said a spokesperson for the Flushing Workers Center, which filed the two women’s initial complaint to the NLRB.

But, Qing and Feng told reporters, they had to work nine to ten hours a day, were expected to serve at least six or seven customers, and had to do an hour of cleaning. They got some tips, but Feng said management kept a substantial percentage of them.

Late last September, according to the NLRB complaint, manager Hui Jing Kelly Zhu told workers in the break room that they could not talk to each other about pay or working conditions, they could quit if they didn’t like the pay or conditions, and they would be fired immediately if they complained to the spa’s owner.

The complaint requests that the company be ordered to give the two women back pay with interest, apologize to them in writing, post notices about workers’ rights in English and Chinese, and train supervisory staff about employees’ rights. It said its policy is to encourage settlements.

“We have given the company the opportunity to settle. They have refused,” Feng said. “The boss seems to think he is above the law.”

A hearing before an NLRB administrative-law judge will begin Nov. 28.