NEW ORLEANS — A steakhouse and more than a dozen employees reached a settlement in a dispute over wages.
On Aug. 27, Judge Susie Morgan of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana granted the joint settlement between Doris Metropolitan and its employees and dismissed the lawsuit.
Morgan determined the settlement was a "fair and reasonable" resolution to a labor dispute involving the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Morgan referenced a July 20 settlement motion, which detailed a two-day bench trial in which the plaintiffs and the defendants reached the settlement stipulation.
The employees, who all worked as servers or assistant servers at Doris Metropolitan restaurant, sued defendants DMNO LLC, Doron Moshe Rebi-Chia, Itai Ben Eli and Itamar Levy in March 2016.
They alleged the restaurant only paid them $2.15 per hour, instead of the $7.25 minimum wages, by claiming a tip credit. But the servers had to pool their tips into a pool that included managers. In addition, the servers claimed the restaurant did not pay overtime wages and required employees to participate in meetings without pay.
The plaintiffs were Mark Gandy, Ashley Newton, David Pierce-Feith, Austin Lane, Patrice Jones, Erin Lawrence, Zachary Adams, Asaria Crittendon, Elizabeth Kuzmovich, Larry Hunt Jr., James Black, Barbara Stamatelatos and Carlos Ayestas.
U.S. District Court Eastern District of Louisiana, Civil Action No. 16-2708