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Batali And Co. Settle Tip-Skimming Suit For $5.25M

By

Garth Johnston

Published Mar 7, 2012

Modified Mar 7, 2012

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Mario Batali, seen here feeding Jon Stewart, has settled up with his disgruntled workers.

 

By

Garth Johnston

Published Mar 7, 2012

Modified Mar 7, 2012

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Of the many lawsuits going these days between restaurants and waiters who claim they've been swindled by their bosses, the one against Mario Batali and his partners at restaurants like Babbo had the highest profile. "Had" being the operative word, since the lawsuit was settled this week for a cool $5.25 million.

Those millions are compensation for what the plaintiffs said was a pervasive and illegal pattern of tip skimming in Batali's restaurants. The money from the settlement will be available to "all individuals who worked at the Restaurants as captains, servers, waiters, bussers, runners, back waiters, bartenders, and/or barbacks from July 22, 2004 to February 14, 2012, and who do not opt out of the settlement," according to legal papers [PDF]. How much each worker will get will depend on how many hours they worked at the restaurants Babbo, Bar Jamon, Casa Mono, Del Posto, Esca, Lupa, Otto or Tarry Lodge.

Meanwhile, last we checked that other lawsuit against Batali's restaurant (the one where a former waiter says he was mercilessly sexually taunted at Babbo) is still working its way through the courts.

Tagged

lawsuit

mario batali

tip skimming

Garth Johnston

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