DC’s Office of the Attorney General has filed a lawsuit against Talea Ristorante in Cathedral Heights and its owner Hamza Hadani, accusing the Italian restaurant of stealing wages and denying workers overtime pay and sick leave, among other violations. The suit claims that when the restaurateur suspected some workers were cooperating with a government investigation, he fired them—then later contacted their new employers and attempted to get them fired again.
“We take issue and have denied and continue to deny the Government’s allegations as this matter has been at issue for almost one year.. The only resolution is for the parties to utilize the resources of the Court for the District of Columbia,” Hadani says in a written statement.
Hadani, who also owns Flavio and Susheria in Georgetown, opened Talea just last June, but the lawsuit alleges the wage theft began before that, as the restaurant brought in staff for training. According to the OAG’s complaint filed yesterday evening in DC Superior Court, Talea paid some tipped employees as little as $3.99 per hour—less than half of the tipped minimum wage (currently $10 per hour in DC). The suit also alleges that the restaurant failed to make sure workers’ take-home pay with tips met the full minimum wage (now $17.50 per hour).
Some staff worked 70-hour weeks, and the restaurant allegedly denied them overtime pay. On top of that, the suit claims Hadani instructed some employees to clock in when service began rather than when they arrived at work, meaning they lost up to two hours of pay per shift. On one occasion, Hadani took workers out to dinner at one of his other restaurants. Afterward, he allegedly told them he would deduct the cost of their meals from their paychecks. The complaint says that as a result of the alleged wage theft, employees struggled to pay for food, rent, medical expenses, and phone bills.
Sick leave was another issue. Talea allegedly did not provide required paid sick leave and illegally demanded employees bring in doctor’s notes for absences. Those who missed work without a doctor’s note were fired, including one employee who claimed to be so underpaid she couldn’t afford to go to the doctor, the suit says.
The restaurant’s record-keeping was also a mess, the lawsuit alleges. Talea didn’t maintain the payroll records required by DC law and sometimes paid employees in handwritten checks without itemized statements showing a breakdown of wages, tips, hours worked, and other basics. That led to confusion about exactly how many hours employees were being paid for and what their hourly pay was. The OAG says the opaque system made it easier for Hadani to conceal the alleged underpayments.
When employees did inquire about their pay, they say they were met with profanity-laced threats or gaslit as Hadani told them he has “been doing this way too long” to pay them incorrectly, the lawsuit claims. Hadani allegedly told his employees not to discuss pay with each other and threatened them with defamation suits for mentioning potential wage theft to their colleagues. He ultimately fired four workers who were cooperating with the OAG, the suit says. He subsequently told some of their new employers that the fired workers were incompetent and should not have jobs, according to the complaint. As a result, one employee was allegedly fired from a job at another restaurant.
“Hamza Hadani exploits his employees while basking in the attention he receives as a well-known restauranteur,” DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb says in a statement. “Servers, hosts, food runners, bussers, and bartenders are underpaid, lied to, denied sick leave, refused overtime—and then, if they speak out about such illegal conduct—are intimidated, harassed and fired.”
The OAG is seeking back wages with interest, damages, and other fees on behalf of the workers.
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind D.C.’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.
