Sweet & Vicious, a midtown Manhattan bar and restaurant popular for its “jagaritas” — frozen margaritas served in giant Mason jars — was a hotbed of sexual, racial and gender-based harassment, where workers endured racial slurs, received tips from management and went unpaid for work, according to a 16-month investigation by Leticia James, the New York state attorney general.
As part of a settlement brokered by the attorney general’s office, owner Hakan Karamahmutoglu will pay $500,000 to be split among at least 16 employees for violating state and city human rights and labor laws, Ms. James said on Wednesday at a news conference.
“For too long, those working in the hospitality industry have been forced to endure a pervasive culture of sexual harassment and discrimination that goes unnoticed,” she said in a statement. “Every New Yorker should be able to go to work without fear of abuse and degradation, regardless of industry.”
Mr Karamahmutoglu said in a statement that many of the allegations were false or grossly misleading and did not reflect his character or point of view. He said he signed the agreement last Thursday as a way to avoid the costs of an ongoing investigation, avoid future litigation and allow everyone to move forward.
“I have given back to the community and city I love and hired hundreds of employees from all backgrounds,” he said in a statement. “We will continue to welcome everyone in a positive and inclusive environment. Those who know me will know this to be true, and I ask those who do not know me not to rush to judgment.”
The investigation began in early 2021 after several women working at the bar got together and spoke with an attorney who referred them to the attorney general’s office. The investigation includes dozens of interviews with former and current employees.
One was Katie Guest, 33, a former bartender at Sweet & Vicious, who said she was surprised that the harassment she and others experience regularly mattered to the attorney general.
“Basically, we didn’t know that someone at this level of power would shine a spotlight on these things that happen every day in the hospitality industry,” she said in an interview. “It went behind closed doors for so long that we just got used to it.”
The bar on Spring Street in NoLIta was a hotbed of harassment from both managers and customers, Ms. James said. According to her findings, the owner routinely insulted female employees, calling them “bitches” and “cows” and scrutinized their appearance, commenting on their bodies and clothing. He also called the workers “terrorists”, “freak heads” and “scum”, Ms James said.
In audio messages left on an employee’s WhatsApp account in 2020 and shared with The New York Times, Mr Karamahmutoglu said women who work for him must be beautiful, thin and active. He wants bartenders who are “tall, blonde, beautiful and sexy like the women who work in bars in Ibiza”.
Kim Anderson, who tended bar at the often-busy bar and restaurant for six months in 2019 to help pay the school leavers’ bills, said: “There was a lot of pressure to behave a certain way, to dress provocatively and look a certain way.” He suspected he wasn’t getting the best shifts because he wasn’t performing the way management wanted him to; she said, for example, that she was often told to wear more makeup.
The bar managers were almost entirely male. Some, according to the settlement document, regularly made unwanted sexual advances, including one manager who repeatedly rubbed his genitals on employees and another who announced the color of a worker’s underwear and made vulgar statements that he wanted to have sex with her.
Management tolerated customers who threatened to stab, rape and beat employees, the attorney general alleged. She said the owner and managers often used racial and gay slurs when talking about the workers.
Poor working conditions cited in the investigation included eight-hour shifts that bartenders spend on their feet without breaks, work weeks that stretch beyond 40 hours without overtime, a stricter code of conduct for female bartenders than for men, and cases , when tips remain on credit cards and never reach workers.
The settlement requires Sweet & Vicious to revise its anti-discrimination and anti-harassment training materials and display notices about anti-discrimination and anti-harassment rights and responsibilities. The owner will be required to submit periodic reports to the attorney general’s office showing that the company is complying with the terms of the agreement.
The investigation is the latest in a series of state investigations targeting sexual assault and harassment in the hospitality industry. The first came in January 2020, when Ken Friedman, the principal owner of the Spotted Pig restaurant in Manhattan, agreed to pay $240,000 and a share of his profits to 11 former employees who had accused him of sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation.
Next up is chef Mario Batali and his former partner Joe Bastianich. In July 2021, Ms. James said the two ran a sexualized culture that was so rife with harassment and retaliation that it violated state and city human rights laws.
The two men and Pasta Resources, the company formerly known as Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group, agreed to pay a total of $600,000 to at least 20 women and men who said they were sexually harassed while working at Manhattan Babbo restaurants , Lupa or Del Posto, which until its final closure in 2021 was the crown jewel among men’s holdings.
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