AG Schwalb suing DC restaurant for allegedly underpaying employees, denying overtime, sick leave

Yahoo

21-02-2025

WASHINGTON () — D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb announced that he is suing a D.C. restaurant for allegedly underpaying employees and denying overtime and sick leave.
Talea is an Italian restaurant that opened its doors in 2024 in the D.C. neighborhood of Cathedral Heights. Talea's owner and managing partner, Hamza Hadani, is a business owner with several restaurants in D.C.
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According to the Office of the Attorney General (OAG), some of the laws that Talea and Hadani violated include: The Minimum Wage Revision Act (MWRA), Sick and Safe Leave Act (SSLA), Wage Transparency Act (WTA), and the Wage Payment and Collection Law (WPCL)
'Hamza Hadani exploits his employees while basking in the attention he receives as a well-known restauranteur,' said Attorney General Schwalb.
The OAG said the unfair labor practice started even before the restaurant opened, when Hadani had an alleged 'training' period in which some employees worked up to 70 hours per week while getting paid lower than the federal minimum wage.
When the restaurant opened its doors in June 2024, the tipped minimum wage was $8 per hour and soon went up to $10 per hour in July 2024. However, many of the tipped workers get paid less than half of what they're supposed to, some even getting paid as low as $3.99 per hour.
They also did not make sure that the wage for tipped workers' hourly pay met the regular minimum wage, which is $17.50 as of July 1, 2024.
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The OAG said that Hadani and Talea did not pay its employees one and a half times their regular rate when they worked overtime (More than 40 hours a week).
It also found that Hadani told employees to not clock in for their shift until they started doing table service instead of when they got to work, which resulted in employees losing about two hours worth of pay.
When employees get sick, they have to go unpaid and find another coworker to cover their shift. Hadani and Talea also do not track absences or leave that employees should generally be eligible for.
Hadani also forced employees to get a doctor's note if they were going on sick leave and would fire employees who were not able to give him a note. One employee was allegedly fired after not providing a note because they couldn't afford to go to a doctor due to being underpaid.
Hadani and Talea also did not maintain proper payroll records as required by D.C. law. There were time were employees were paid with handwritten checks that did not include itemized statements that showed wages and tips, what was deducted or added as well as the amount the were earning per hour for during the pay period.
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Because of this, employees did not know the amount of hours they were being paid for, the hourly rate, how much was deducted from their check or how much they were expecting to take home.
This made it easier for Hadani and Talea to continue its unfair labor practice since it was easier to keep employees underpaid.
The investigation also revealed that Hadani would verbally attack employees with profanities when they asked questions about their pay. He also told employees to not talk to each other about pay and threatened with baseless defamations suits for telling former coworkers about wage and hour violations.
Hadani also fired employees who he suspected were cooperating with OAG's investigation. He also used his connection with people in the restaurant industry to contact the workplace of former employees in efforts to get them fired again.
'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. As the District's independent Attorney General, I will continue to fight to protect the workers who are the lifeblood of our city's vibrant restaurant culture and work tirelessly to ensure a level playing field for restaurants that play by the rules,' said Schwalb.
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The OAG wants Talea and Hadani to comply with D.C.'s employment laws and stop its illegal conduct. It also wants employees who were not allowed minimum wage, overtime, and paid sick leave to recover unpaid wages and paid sick leave as well as civil penalties.
Hamza Hadani, the Managing Partner at Talea Ristorante, provided a statement to DC News Now saying:
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.'
Hamza HadaniManaging Partner
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