Former-butcher-turned-global-sensation Nusret Gökçe, or “Salt Bae” as the world knows him, has got himself into a bit of a pickle these days.
The famous Turkish chef and owner of the world-renowned Nusr-Et chain is being sued by five of his employees at the Manhattan branch of his celebrity-infested restaurant for not paying them overtime.
New York labor lawyer Louis Pechman is suing Gökçe on behalf of five Turkish grill men for misclassifying them as managers “to avoid paying them legally required overtime pay ... while requiring them to work seventy-hours or more per week.”
“Unfortunately, paying kitchen workers on a salary so that they are cheated out of overtime pay is a common practice in many restaurants,” Pechman told CNBC.
His multi-million-dollar steak chain has restaurants in cities such as Istanbul, Mykonos, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Miami, and Dallas.
Gökçe was forced to pay out four waiters a total of 230,000 dollars for filing a suit after they were fired for questioning the distribution of tips in 2019.
