Au Fudge! Jessica's Employees Sue For Over $461K In Stolen Tips & Work Violations
Jessica Biel is worth millions, but RadarOnline.com can exclusively reveal that her Au Fudge Employees are accusing the actress of stealing at least $430,100 in tips from them!
Biel, 35, is being sued up to $1 million for allegedly pocketing nine employees’ tips worth $430,100 and violating rest break laws to the tune of $34,549, according to Los Angeles County Superior Court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com.
The employees claimed that they “were young adults new to the workforce and new to Los Angeles” when Biel employed them in March 2016 and they “were ill-prepared to deal with the violations of their rights in the workplace” which included “working in excess of eight hours per day” without “meal breaks or rest breaks or overtime compensation for work.” The employees also alleged that they “were told that they were entitled to receive compensatory gratuities directly from customers” and “were informed” that tips would be distributed to them in cases where private parties for companies such as Amazon, Netflix and Fox Studios were booked.
But, they claimed that they never received the private party tips, saying: “In truth, Biel and her co-owners charged hundreds of thousands of dollars in gratuities to private-party customers and converted said gratuities to themselves in order to pad their own pockets and deprive employees their just compensation.”
The employees claimed that tips were built into customers’ bills at 22 percent, and they should have received at least $48,449.50 from vendors including Fisher Price, Netflix and Amazon. They also reported that they do not have access to contracts that could be withholding at least $280,500 from them, and listed Au Fudge's co-owners Estee Stanley, Monica Saunders-Weinberg, Joey Gonzalez, Jonathan Rollo and Kim Muller in the suit as well.
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They claimed the “owners blamed the ‘glitch’ of converting the private event gratuities to a single manager’ but they still did not receive the tips after the manager was fired.
A former manager told the employees’ lawyer that she “had a personal conversation with co-owner Jon Rollo” to discuss her belief that “it was against the law for Au Fudge’s customers to pay a gratuity and then have the restaurant fail to transfer the gratuity to employees whom had direct contact with the customers.”
“Jon Rollo responded: ‘I don’t think you understand. Don’t worry about it,’” the employee — who is not listed in the suit — claimed.
Another former employee who is not listed in the suit was also told “not to worry” about the policy, according to the court papers.
Biel has not responded to the suit yet.
The Blast initially reported the case.
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