Celeb Chef Mario Batali Sued by Former Employees
Posted in Employment, Overtime Pay on 28. Jul, 2010
foodnetwork.com
Two former employees of Mario Batali are suing the celebrity chef for pay that they claim is rightly theirs. Stephanie Capsolas and Herman Ricardo Alvarado, a waitress and kitchen runner respectively, claim that Batali wrongly divvied up their tips with other employees.
Attorney Denise A. Schulman says that the restaurant Babbo, owned by Batali, was improperly taking 4.5 percent of its wine sales every night and subtracting it from the tip pool, which deprived employees of that income and decreased their base wage.
The employees’ class action lawsuit also claims that the workers are paid below minimum wage and work overtime, with shifts that exceed 10 hours.
Chef Mario Batali, who has not commented on the lawsuit, owns 15 eateries which are located in New York, Nevada and California.
