Mario Batali Agrees to $5.25 Million Settlement Over Employee Tips

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The celebrity chef and restaurateur Mario Batali and a business partner have agreed to pay $5.25 million to resolve a lawsuit filed on behalf of waiters, captains and other employees who claimed that his restaurants had illegally confiscated part of their tips to supplement their profits, court papers show.

The proposed class-action settlement, which must be approved by a judge, could cover about 1,100 employees, including servers, busboys, runners and bartenders who worked at the restaurants, in some cases as far back as 2004, according to a filing made Monday in Federal District Court in Manhattan. The suit is similar to others that have been brought in the past few years claiming labor violations by high-profile chefs and restaurants in New York and elsewhere.

The lawsuit against Mr. Batali, filed in 2010, said that he and a partner, Joseph Bastianich, and their restaurants had a policy of deducting an amount equivalent to 4 to 5 percent of total wine sales at the end of each night from the tip pool and keeping the money.

One bartender was told that “it was a policy across the Batali restaurant group” and that the money “went to the house,” a judge, Richard J. Holwell, wrote in a ruling last May. At Tarry Lodge, in Port Chester, N.Y., a spreadsheet divided a night’s tips among waiters and documented a 4 percent deduction, Judge Holwell noted. At one staff meeting, an executive “refused to justify the policy and said it was not going to change,” the judge wrote.

Employees were told the money was to cover expenses related to wine research and to cover broken glassware, the judge added. He made no findings on the merits of the case.

Other Batali restaurants named in the suit included Babbo, Del Posto, Casa Mono, Bar Jamón, Esca, Lupa and Otto, all in Manhattan.

Rachel Bien, a lawyer for the employees, and Carolyn D. Richmond, a lawyer for Mr. Batali, issued identical statements Wednesday, saying, “The matter has been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties.” A spokeswoman for Mr. Batali did not respond to a message seeking comment.

The lawyers for the plaintiffs may receive up to one-third of the settlement as legal fees, if the court approves, the papers show. The defendants admit no wrongdoing.

Judge Holwell resigned last month to enter private practice, but another judge is expected to hold a hearing on the settlement proposal and then decide whether to approve it.


March 7, 2012, 6:10 pm

By BENJAMIN WEISER
Evan Agostini/Associated Press

Minnesota Waitress Sues After Police Seize $12,000 'Tip'

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Stacy Knutson, a struggling Minnesota waitress and mother of five, says she was searching for a "miracle" to help her family with financial problems.

But that "miracle" quickly came and went after police seized a $12,000 tip that was left at her table. Knutson filed a lawsuit in Clay County District Court stating that the money is rightfully hers. Police argue it is drug money.

Knutson was working at the Fryn' Pan in Moorhead, Minn., when, according to her attorney, Craig Richie, a woman left a to-go box from another restaurant on the table. Knutson followed the woman to her car to return the box to her.

"No I am good, you keep it," the woman said, according to the lawsuit.

Knutson did not know the woman and has not seen her since, Richie said. Knutson thought it was "strange" that the woman told her to keep it but she took it inside. The box felt too heavy to be leftovers, Ritchie said, so she opened it -- only to find bundles of cash wrapped in rubber bands.

"Even though I desperately needed the money as my husband and I have five children, I feel I did the right thing by calling the Moorhead Police," Knutson said in the lawsuit.

Police seized the money and originally told Knutson that if no one claimed it after 60 days, it was hers. She was later told 90 days, Richie said. When 90 days passed, Knutson was still without the $12,000.
Police told Knutson the money was being held as "drug money" and she would receive a $1,000 reward instead, the lawsuit states. Lt. Tory Jacobson of the Moorhead police said he could not disclose much information about the case because it is an ongoing investigation.

"With turning this money over to us, we initiated an investigation to determine whose money this is," Jacobson told ABC News. "The result has been a narcotics investigation."

Police argue that the money had a strong odor of marijuana and therefore falls under a law that allows for forfeiture of the money because it was in the proximity of a controlled substance, the lawsuit states. But there were no drugs in the box and Richie said he believes this law is not being used correctly.

"Because it was in contact with drugs somewhere along the line, it's somehow drug money," Richie said. "This isn't drug money."

A police dog also performed a sniff test on the money and, according to the dog's handler, discovered an odor.

Two of Knutson's co-workers, along with her son Brandon, were at the Fryn' Pan the night she discovered the money. Her co-workers say they did not smell marijuana.

"I know the smell of marijuana," Nickolas Fronning, a line cook at the Fryn' Pan, said in an affidavit. "I can also assure you that there was no smell of marijuana on the bills or coming from the box."

There was nothing suspicious in the restaurant when the money was found, co-workers said. They don't why it was given to Knutson.

"She was just in the right place at the right time," Tracy Johnson, the assistant manager at the Fryn' Pan, told ABC News.

Knutson's family has had a long financial struggle. She has been a waitress at the Fryn' Pan for 18 years.
"We do everything we can to make ends meet, but often times everything is not covered," she said in the lawsuit.

Knutson's financial woes are well-known in her church, Richie said. She believes that perhaps someone from the church gave her the money through this woman but did not want to be identified.
"Somebody knew she really needed the money and she needed to be helped," Richie said.
Jacobson says it is up to the judge to decide who the money rightfully belongs to.

"The police department doesn't have a decision on either side," Jacobson said. "She did the right thing, we credit her with that. It's certainly not the police department against her. We're actually with her."
But Richie said he firmly believes this is not drug money and it rightfully belongs to Knutson.
"The only thing that smells bad about this is that it's unfair," Richie said. "So that's why we're doing something about it."

Update: Minnesota Waitress Gets to Keep $12,000 Tip

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Updated: A Minnesota waitress has $12,000 to help pay her bills after claiming in a lawsuit that she was entitled to the money she turned over to police after a customer gave it to her.

Stacy Knutson of Moorhead, Minn., said in the Clay County suit that more than 90 days had passed without anyone claiming the money and it should be returned to her, report the Associated Press and ABC News. Police said the money smelled like marijuana and it was being held in a drug investigation.

On Thursday, Knutson’s lawyer, Craig Richie, said authorities decided to return the money, report Reuters and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Knutson received her check Thursday night.

According to the suit, a customer left the money for Knutson when she was working at the Fry’n Pan restaurant. The money was in a takeout box for another restaurant. Knutson’s suit said she tried to return the box to the customer, not knowing what it contained, and the customer said, “No, I am good, you keep it.” When Knutson opened the box, she saw it contained wads of bills.

Richie says his client gave the money to police because she didn’t want to be accused of doing anything wrong. When no one claimed it, Knutson decided the money really was a gift, Richie says. She suspects the donor was someone from her church who knew she was having financial troubles.

"The only thing that smells bad about this is that it's unfair," Richie told ABC before the settlement was announced.

Knutson plans to use the money to pay medical bills. She currently works full time at the Fry'n Pan and part time at two other jobs.

Barton G. restaurants to pay more than $28,000 in back wages

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BY ELAINE WALKER

EWALKER@MIAMIHERALD.COM

Barton G. restaurants has agreed to pay $28,027 in back wages to 99 employees following investigations by the U.S. Department of Labor.The government found minimum wage, overtime and record-keeping violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act took place at all three of Barton G.’s Miami locations: Barton G. The Restaurant in South Beach, Prelude by Barton G. inside the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami and The Villa By Barton G. in the former Versace Mansion.This is likely to be the first of several cases about to come down against South Beach restaurateurs.Investigators from the Department of Labor’s Miami office found violations including failure to properly pay tipped employees, such as servers and bartenders, for all hours worked. Payroll records and interviews show that many employees earned wages below the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour.Barton G. also failed to properly calculate and compensate tipped employees for all overtime hours beyond 40 hours per week. In addition, record-keeping violations meant some employees were paid a percentage of sales, which is a commission and not a tip.Following the investigations, Barton G. agreed to pay all back wages, change its payroll systems and maintain future compliance with the federal law.Owner Barton G. Weiss said any errors were not intentional, but simply computerized calculation errors.“If we were wrong, we were wrong,” Weiss said. “I’ll take the hit for it. They came up with a number and I agreed to pay.”


Comment by Lowell J. Kuvin, Esq.
However, what the article does not say is that the employees who were not paid correctly have a choice of accepting what DOL thinks they are owed, or, hiring a law firm to recover their lost wages. What is the difference? A law firm such as the Law Office of Lowell J. Kuvin, LLC can ask the court for the wages you are owed as well as an equal amount in liquidated damages, while DOL will not. To put it another way, if you are owed $350 in unpaid wages, we ask for $700 plus attorney fees and costs. In my opinion, if a person gets caught walking out of a store without paying for an item, you shouldn't be allowed to just pay for the item, and walk away. What would keep you from doing the same thing again and again?


Contact us today for a free assessment of your case.




Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/01/2778187/barton-g-restaurants-to-pay-more.html#storylink=cpy

Workers rally in downtown Miami to demand a higher minimum wage !

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Three years after completing a tour of duty in Iraq, Marcus Edgerson is poor

The 24-year-old veteran supports his wife and 4-month-old son working part-time at the Walmart in Hallandale Beach. He earns $7.70 an hour — three cents more than Florida’s minimum wage

“I fought for my country so we could live well, but then I come home and we’re living in poverty,” he said. “I can’t take care of my family, and that’s not right.

Edgerson joined a rally at downtown Miami’s Bayfront Park to mark the third anniversary of the last time Congress raised the federal minimum wage. About 200 people turned up for the demonstration — one of many that took place across the country Tuesday in support of proposals by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., to increase the national minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $9.80 by 2014. Their proposals would also index the minimum wage to inflation.

Florida’s minimum wage is higher than the national one, and is already linked to inflation. If the proposed federal increase is adopted, the national minimum wage would surpass and replace Florida’s.
Such an increase would raise the annual pay for a full-time minimum wage employee from about $15,000 to $20,000, according to the Economic Policy Institute. This would put an extra $100 a week in the pockets of the 20 million Americans who earn minimum wage.

The most common argument in support of the measure is to compensate those at the lower end of the pay scale more for their work so that they have money to spend, thus increasing demand for goods and services. The money spent on higher wages for the poor would immediately “recirculate back into our economy,” said Eric Brakken, director of 1Miami, a collection of community groups that organized the rally.

Opponents of the proposal say that increasing the minimum wage would make it harder to create jobs in an economy where unemployment is still uncomfortably high. If workers must be paid more, fewer might be hired, they say.

Brakken dismissed this argument, saying that economists should be concerned with the quality of jobs that are created, not just the number of positions. Many of the janitors and other low-wage workers at the rally on Tuesday told stories of losing their full-time jobs with benefits so that companies could take on more part-time workers who would cost employers less.

Edgerson, the veteran, said if the minimum wage were increased, it would help him buy the basics for his young family. At the top of his list is a driver’s license, which will cost him $250 since he was fined for not having the car insurance he couldn’t afford. Without a driver’s license, he has little chance of getting a better job, and he has to work for Walmart for a full year before he can be hired full time

“It’s frustrating that I don’t get paid much for my hard work,” he said. “I like to help people, and they appreciate the customer service. But the company, they don’t appreciate the work I do for them. . . . If I were not out there, they wouldn’t make their money.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/24/2910776/workers-rally-in-downtown-miami.html#storylink=cpy