Actress Jessica Biel’s “Soho House for Kids” is in hot water.
Biel, her kid-friendly Los Angeles restaurant Au Fudge and the star’s business parters are being sued by nine former and current employees, who claim they weren’t given proper rest and meal breaks and were stiffed tens of thousands of dollars in gratuities from major Hollywood parties they worked for companies such as Netflix, Amazon and Fox.
Biel and her partners are accused of having “converted said gratuities to themselves in order to pad their own pockets,” according to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles last Wednesday.
The angry employees are seeking $461,649 in compensatory damages, along with punitive damages “in an amount to be ascertained at trial but not less than $1,000,000.”
Jesse M. Caryl, the attorney representing Au Fudge, told Page Six in a statement, “The Company and its investors strongly dispute the allegations raised in the complaint. While the Company will not litigate the matter in the media, it looks forward to vigorously defending itself before the Court.”
Au Fudge opened its doors in early 2016 and offers a place where parents can check their kids into a play area monitored by special au pairs, then order up cutesy cocktails with names like The Little Prince.