Less than two months after Roberto Donna reopened his flagship restaurant, Galileo, the renowned Washington restaurateur has been served another enormous helping of trouble. A federal judge Friday ordered the Italian chef to pay $527,000 in back pay, damages and legal fees to 12 workers who sued him for violating labor laws over nearly two decades.
In a 46-page opinion, Chief U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth wrote that Donna and his companies “consistently failed to abide by their duties” in failing to pay overtime, misstating the number of hours worked and rarely paying workers on time at Galileo, the upscale District dining room that closed in 2006, and at Bebo Trattoria, a Crystal City restaurant that was shuttered in April 2009.