In what is believed to be the largest settlement of its kind, celebrity chef Mario Batali agreed to pay $5.25 million to resolve a lawsuit alleging that he and his business partner violated the Fair Labor Standards Act through a tip-skimming policy at eight of their popular New York restaurants.
The class-action lawsuit, which could cover 1,100 current and former servers, busboys, runners, and bartenders who worked at those restaurants between 2004 and 2012, alleges that Mr. Batali and his business partner, Joseph Bastianich, withheld money from tips that amounted to between 4 and 5 percent of the nightly wine sales and didn’t pay minimum wage or overtime.