Kanye West and his fashion label, Yeezy, were forced to shell out a whopping six-figure payout to resolve a lawsuit involving former employees of his organization. According to InTouch, ex-employees Taliah Leslie and Shelby Grochowski appealed to the court to approve the $625,000 settlement negotiated outside court.
According to the outlet, the figure incurs the costs of the lawyers who worked on the case and the former workers, while a chunk was reserved for any future legal claims or other such allegations that may stem from other ex-employees.
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Kanye West allegedly didn't like "the smell of food in the working area," thereby prohibiting Yeezy employees from eating on time
Leslie and Grochowski signed on to work for Yeezy in November 2019, with the former serving as an assistant designer and the latter an assistant patternmaker. According to Baller alert, Leslie launched the lawsuit in May 2021, claiming that there was a major breach of the labor code.
Allegedly, the label failed to compensate for "overtime wages, minimum wages, meal and rest break premiums, willful misclassification, wage statement violations, recordkeeping violations, and the failure to pay all wages upon the termination of employment.”
Per the outlet, documents also outlined instances where the workers were required to travel without being reimbursed for the same. The documents read:
"Defendants failed to compensate Plaintiff and the Aggrieved Employees for off- the-clock work on the jobsite, for compulsory travel to and from out-of-town locations (including travel to Cody, Wyoming, and Paris, France), for compulsory travel to and from the out-of-town jobsites, and for other off-the-clock work, which Plaintiff and the aggrieved employees performed with Defendants’ knowledge and/or consent.”
It goes on:
"This resulted in Defendant failing to compensate all overtime hours worked when Plaintiff and Aggrieved Employees worked over eight hours in one day or forty hours in one week. Defendants also failed to compensate other Aggrieved Employees who were misclassified as exempt from overtime pay.”
Moreover, the lawsuit also alleged that Ye fostered a controlling work environment:
"For example, West did not like the smell of food in the working area and prohibited Plaintiff and the Aggrieved Employees from eating inside indoors. As a result, Plaintiff and the Aggrieved Employees were required to eat outdoors for all their meals at work, regardless of inclement weather or the presence of any suitable seating.”
Regardless, according to Baller Alert, Yeezy maintains its innocence, denying "any liability or wrongdoing” in the matters at hand. They also contend that their actions were in compliance with the California Labor Code and the Industrial Wage Commission Orders.
Furthermore, the two were allegedly dubbed independent contractors instead of what they were supposed to be, i.e. non-exempt employees. Allegedly, Yeezy “eventually reclassified [Grochowski] as an employee despite giving him the same job duties, but misclassified him as exempt from overtime when his true classification should have been non-exempt.”
Per the outlet, Leslie sought restitution for unspecified damages. Bianca Censory, Kanye's wife, signed the agreement on his and the label's behalf.
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