Did Salt Bae stiff his employees out of tips and wages? Federal judge says no
Salt Bae won a class action lawsuit filed against him by his employees.
A federal judge ruled in favor of international and controversial Turkish restaurateur Nusret Gökçe in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, according to the Daily Business Review-Law.com. Gökçe is famous for seasoning his high-end steaks with a flick of his wrist in Internet videos.
The case’s lead plaintiff Melissa Compere, a server at Nusr-Et Steakhouse in Brickell, said the restaurant illegally shared her tips with workers whose jobs didn’t rely on gratuities.
According to the Florida Fair Labor Standards Act, Nusr-et is allowed to charge a service charge to recoup losses (such as broken dishes) before splitting the money with workers. But if the bill comes with a separate line for tips, that money must go directly to workers whose salary is dependent on tips. Compere said the restaurant lumped those tips and the service charge into the pool that went to all employees.
The suit hinged on whether the 18 percent service charge on a bill at the Brickell steakhouse was considered solely a tip for the server. U.S. District Court Judge Raag Singhal said it was not and ruled in the restaurant’s favor.
Gökçe, who opened Nusr-et Steakhouse more than 10 years ago in Turkey and now has 10 locations in cities including Istanbul, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, has been at the center of several controversies. He hosted and fawned over Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in the middle of that country’s food crisis in a video since deleted from Instragram, which lead to protests outside his Miami restaurant.
He had previously angered many Miami residents when a photo of him dressed as Fidel Castro surfaced on Instagram. The English translation of his comment, according to Google Translate, was “They said you started a revolution, too.”
More recently, his Brickell restaurant was involved in a complaint from a customer who disputed a $5,000 bill for gold-wrapped steaks.
