really mario batali ??

[Gen]

<span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">bastianich must be related to the old lady lidia. never been to any of mario's joints because him food just never inspire me to visit </span></span><span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">shake mi head and didn't this man guh dunga the occupy wall street guh give dem food ? how yuh do this to people and sleep a night time ?</span> </span>


Mario Batali to Pay <span style="text-decoration: underline">$5.25 Million</span> for Allegedly Cheating Workers on Tips

By Mike Fleeman

Talk about restaurant bills. Mario Batali is stuck with one to the tune of more than $5 million.

<span style="font-weight: bold">The celebrity chef and his business partner have settled a class-action lawsuit filed by about 1,000 waiters and waitresses, busboys and bartenders who claimed Batali's restaurants illegally took some of their tips to boost profits, the New York Times reports.</span>

The lawsuit, filed in 2010 in Federal District Court in Manhattan against Batali and partner Joseph Bastianich, alleges that such New York restaurants as Babbo, Del Posto and Casa Mono deducted 4 percent to 5 percent of wine sales each night from the tip pool.

One restaurant executive &quot;refused to justify the policy and said it was not going to change,&quot; a judge wrote in a ruling last May.

A joint statement from lawyers for Batali and the workers said, &quot;The matter has been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties,&quot; according to the Times.

yahsuh

[ILP]

Re: really mario batali ??

Been to im spot in Vegas (in the Venetian). Holy Cow When mi seh mi was sick.... I guess it was just too much of di Olive Oil pon im tings.

Yeah, he grosses me out.

[kia027]

Re: really mario batali ??

maybe he should change his speciality to something that is healthy and good

[Tropicana]

Celebrity chef Mario Batali ordered to pay $5.25 million for skimming tips

Celebrity chef Mario Batali ordered to pay $5.25 million for skimming tips from his restaurant help

Employees claimed they were forced to share their tips with other workers who weren't legally entitled to them.Celebrity chef Mario Batali has agreed to whip up a $5.25 million payment to the captains, waiters and other workers at his restaurants who claimed they had been stiffed out of tips.
Two-thirds of what may be the biggest settlement of its kind will be shared by 1,100 workers — everybody from the bartenders to the busboys — at swanky Manhattan eateries like Babbo, Bar Jamon, Casa Mono, Del Posto, Esca, Lupa and Otto, and Tarry Lodgein Port Chester, court papers revealed Wednesday.
The rest goes to the lawyers who took on Batali and business partner Joseph Bastianich.
When the workers sued two years ago, Bastianich called it a “shakedown” and made a point of sarcastically thanking some of the staff who took him and Batali to court.

He also discouraged other workers from joining the suit, saying, “Only the lawyers make money on these lawsuits,” the court papers state.
There was no immediate comment from either famous foodie after word of the huge settlement leaked out.
Lawyers for both sides issued a single statement saying, saying, “The matter has been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties.”
Both
Batali and Bastianich have known for several months that a giant tab was heading their way.
The agreement was hammered out after a marathon mediation meeting in October and still needs to be approved by a Manhattan federal judge before any checks are cut.
The settlement covers staff who worked for Batali’s restaurants from July 2004 through February of this year, and the payouts will be proportional — based on the number of hours worked.
The case against Batali and Bastianich was filed by Stephanie Capsolas and Hernan Alvarado, a waitress and a kitchen runner at Babbo.
Capsolas claimed she was harassed after she sued.
“I have found the word ‘rat’ written on my locker at work,” she said in court papers.
Capsolas and Alvarado claimed they were forced to share their tips with other workers who weren't legally entitled to them — and charged they’d been short-changed on wages and overtime.
More than a hundred other workers at Batali’s and Bastianich's restaurants then joined in the suit.
Many claimed the multimillionaire owners refused to pay them the minimum wage — and forced them to work more than 40 hours a week.
Previously, the biggest settlement for tip skimming was the $3.9 million paid by the Shelly Fireman's Restaurant group, which owns Trattoria Dell'Arte, Cafe Fiorello, Fireman's of Brooklyn, Brooklyn Diner USA, Redeye Grill and Shelly's New York.
The famed Sparks Steakhouse had to pay out $3.1 million for the same practice, as did the Nobu restaurants,who settled with their workers for $2.5 million

This goes on alot in the hotel and restaurant industry...I am surprised that legal action has been taken.

[Gen]

yes ??