The creater of Vanderpump Rules, Lisa Vanderpump was accused of not paying her restraunt employees and not allowing them to take meal breaks. The news comes as a shock as most know Lisa for fighting for equal rights and righting the wrongs of the world.
Vanderpump helped make The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills a household name since its launch in 2010. This last year, however, the restaurant owner and former actress abruptly decided she would be leaving the much-loved show behind after numerous fallouts with the women to focus on her spinoff show. Vanderpump Rules follows servers of her famous eateries around their drama-filled lives. The show has started airing its 8th season and fans could not be happier.
The British native was sued on December 16th according to People by a former employee, Adam Pierce Antoine, when he filed a class-action lawsuit against her. The lawsuit included several other former employees in which they accused Vanderpump and her husband Ken Todd of having violated multiple California labor laws. The papers allege that the couple has been violating these laws for over four years. The court documents also show that Vanderpump failed to pay out wages which included overtime when the former employees worked for her at TOM TOM, SUR, Villa Blanca, and Pump.
The lawsuit went deeper into the mechanics of the West Hollywood restaurants and went as far as to accuse Vanderpump of manipulating the time records to show fewer hours than the employees actually worked. Antoine also claimed that the reality TV star did not pay minimum wage for hours that were not clocked, during training, or if an employee was on call. The plaintiffs also stated that during their normal workdays they were not given a meal break or a rest period. California labor laws specifically state that an employer has an employee work more than five hours without a sufficient meal break which should consist of 30 minutes. Antoine claimed multiple times that the Beverly Hills housewife did not comply with the state law and would not give her employee 30-minute breaks.
The charges that Vanderpump and Todd face are very serious with the law stating that if the regulations were not met that the employee should be compensated. The court documents paint a nasty picture of the business owner as she was also accused of not paying Antonine for his time after being fired, as well as not providing him with pay stubs. The disgruntled employee says he is owed $25,000 due to damages. Vanderpump has made no statement of her own regarding the matter.
Vanderpump Rules airs Tuesdays at 8pm EST on Bravo.
Source: People