‘We hope that Our Win Can Encourage More Workers to Unite’: Fired NYC Massage Workers Get Their Jobs Back

Fired Liangtse Wellness workers and supporters protest in Midtown this past September. This week, they got their jobs back. Photo by Steve Wishnia.

By Steve Wishnia

Two massage workers at a midtown Manhattan spa who were fired after they complained to their boss about pay and scheduling have won their jobs back.

Under a settlement agreement overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, Xiaoqing Tian and Shulian Feng, who were fired from Liangtse Wellness in November 2022, have been reinstated and will get “almost all” of the pay they lost, the Flushing Workers Center, which filed the two women’s initial complaint to the NLRB, announced Dec. 5.

“Last year, when we complained about unfair treatment and wage theft to the boss DJ Liu, he fired us,” the two women said in a statement. “The National Labor Relations Board investigated and found that the boss’s firing was illegal. Now, we are thrilled to announce that we have reached a settlement agreement with the boss, which offers us our jobs back and almost all of our lost pay during the time we lost our jobs.”

They will each receive a five-figure sum, based on the NLRB’s calculations of how much pay they were deprived of, plus interest and minus the amount they earned on other jobs since they were fired, Flushing Workers Center spokesperson Sarah Ahn told Work-Bites. She said she could not give an exact figure because she didn’t know if Tian and Feng wanted the amount publicized.

The two had been fired after complaining to spa owner Xiaozhe “DJ” Liu in a conversation on the WeChat messaging app a few weeks after their wages had been changed from $25 per massage to a flat rate of $120 a day. They said at a press conference in September that under the new system, they had to work nine to ten hours a day, were expected to treat at least six or seven clients, and had to do an hour of cleaning. Management kept a substantial percentage of their tips, Feng added.

In August, NLRB regional director John D. Doyle issued a formal complaint against Liangtse Wellness, alleging that Tian and Feng had been forced for “concertedly reporting work-related concerns directly to Respondent’s owner” and that 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 trial before an administrative law judge was scheduled for Nov. 28, but Liangtse Wellness offered to negotiate a settlement about a week before, Ahn said. The agreement was signed Nov. 24.

“We would also like to thank the boss DJ Liu for being reasonable by coming to the settlement, and agreeing to create a fair environment for employees,” Tian and Feng said in their statement. “Workers, like bosses, are human beings, and should be treated equally and with respect. We hope that the massage industry can learn from this and correct the widespread issues of unfair scheduling and wage theft. Both workers and bosses will benefit from such changes.

“We hope that our win can encourage more workers to unite and stand up themselves when facing unfair treatment.”