Mario Batali Settles Lawsuit, Pays Employees $5.25 Million

Mario Batali has agreed to settle the class-action lawsuit against him which accuses the celebrity chef of cheating his servers out of their tips. Batali will pay out $5.25 million to settle the lawsuit.

The LA Times reports that the complaint was filed in 2010 by servers at Batali’s New York restaurants. The lawsuit alleged that Batali and his business partner Joseph Bastianich violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by pocketing a portion of their server’s tips. The lawsuit reads:

“Mr. Batali, Mr. Bastianich, and their restaurants unlawfully confiscated a portion of their workers’ hard-earned tips in order to supplement their own profits.”

The lawsuit claimed that Batali had a restaurant policy that would would deduct the equivalent of 5% of a server’s total wine sales at the end of each night. Batali claimed that the money was taken to cover wine related expenses but the suit alleged that Batali pocketed the money.

The New York Times reports that the settlement, which has to be approved by a judge, will cover more than 1000 employees, including servers, busboys, and bartenders at Batali’s restaurants from as far back as 2004. Swanky Manhattan restaurants like Babbo, Del Posto, Casa Mono, Bar Jamón, Esca, Lupa and Otto were all named in the lawsuit.

The New York Daily News reports that the money from the settlement will be paid out to workers in proportion to the amount of hours they worked for Batali.

Rachel Bien, a lawyer for the employees, and Carolyn D. Richmond, a lawyer for Batali, both issued statements saying:

“The matter has been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties.”