WAGING GRACELESSLY: Joseph Bastianich and Mario Batali will pay former workers $5.25 million over claims of wages and tip skimping. (
)
Now, that’s a lot of pasta!
Celebrity chef Mario Batali has agreed to fork over a whopping $5.25 million to settle tip-skimming allegations at eight Italian-style restaurants he co-owns with business partner Joseph Bastianich.
The pending deal — which could cover as many as 1,100 current and former workers at eateries including Babbo, Esca and Lupa — is believed to be the largest ever in a New York wage-and-tip suit.
The amount is a pinch larger than the $5.1 million that the Lenny’s sandwich-shop chain agreed to pay out last year, said lawyer Lou Pechman, who in 2009 won $3.15 million for workers at Sparks Steak House in the biggest settlement with a single restaurant.
It also means Bastianich will have to eat his words for publicly vowing “to fight this to every inch of the law, because we know we’re right” after he and Batali were slapped with the class-action complaint in 2010.
Bastianich — son of longtime public-TV chef Lidia Bastianich — was subsequently accused of encouraging workers at Babbo to retaliate against waitress Stephanie Capsolas and kitchen runner Hernan Ricardo Alvarado for filing the suit.
Last year, Bastianich told The Post that he and Batali would never open another restaurant in New York, saying: “Money-hungry lawyers, through frivolous lawsuits, are shaking down the very foundation of Manhattan’s restaurant industry.”
Neither Bastianich nor Batali responded to requests for comment yesterday, and lawyers on both sides issued an identical statement saying only: “The matter has been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties.”
The suit alleged that Batali and Bastianich “misappropriated” 4 to 5 percent of each shift’s wine and drink sales from the workers’ tip pool, took an unlawful “tip credit” that pushed pay below minimum wage and failed to pay extra for shifts lasting more than 10 hours.
According to papers filed in Manhattan federal court, the settlement — which is awaiting a judge’s approval — was cooked up during an all-day mediation session last year.
The filing says those eligible to join the settlement include everyone who worked at the restaurants as “captains, servers, waiters, bussers, back waiters, bartenders and/or barbacks from July 22, 2004, to Feb. 14, 2012.”
In addition to 10 named plaintiffs, 117 people have joined the case since it was certified as a class-action case and notices were sent out last year.
Celebrity chef Mario Batali and business partner Joseph Bastianich have agreed to pay a record amount to settle a restaurant wage-and-tip suit.
* Plaintiffs named: 10
* Workers who joined since the suit was certified a class action: 117
* Number eligible for settlement: About 1,100
* Amount of settlement: $5.25M
* Eateries involved: 8