The beef at Slutty Vegan has been laid to rest.
A settlement has been reached for three Slutty Vegan Brooklyn employees who filed a lawsuit against the Atlanta-based company over unpaid wages and bonuses. All three employees were awarded a lump sum of $10,000 “inclusive of reasonable attorney’s fees, cost and expenses.”
Morgan Georgia, a former employee who worked at Bar Vegan as a bartender from March 2020 until October 2022 called out, Slutty Vegan founder, Pinky Cole and her partners. Georgia alleged that in addition to unpaid wages, employees were paid less than the minimum wage and taking a portion of their tips. Georgia also alleged that tipped employees like herself were paid $2.13 an hour and were also required to give up 25 percent of their tips to Bar Vegan and its managers and owners during each shift.
Cole, responded to the accusations during a sit-down discussion at the Disruptors Summit.
“Imagine having 450 employees and making sure that you’re serving all of their needs. Some people going to slip through the cracks. We might not always get it right, but we do the best we can.”
Cole used the opportunity to clear her name and noted that she’s learning lessons at every step with running a multi-million dollar business.
“I made the biggest mistake of hiring family in business and I will never do that again,” she admitted . “And I love my family. But it also just tells me that [if] you want to build a multi-million dollar company, you have to move like a multi-million dollar company. You have to move like a corporate entity. You have to move like the big conglomerates move. And be very clean in your approach in everything that you do.”
“Luckily, I have an all-star legal team,” she added. “Luckily, I’ll have an all-star accounting team that protects us every step of the way because I’m moving into the billion dollar space.”
Cole also addressed the claims in an Instagram post.
“I only operate in integrity”
“Up until this point, I was not familiar with this ordeal or the employee, because I don’t run day to day operations at Bar Vegan.” She added, “The people who know me, know I ONLY operate in integrity, so this is a wicked narrative especially when this is nothing more than an allegation.”
She continued, “At the end of the day, my name means more to me than any money that could EVER go in my bank account — and I will NEVER let anybody destroy that.”
The lawsuit also includes the general manager and Slutty Vegan Brooklyn’s certified trainer. The general manager claims that they were not paid a quarterly bonus of $7,000 in addition to working overtime.
The certified trainer also claims he was not paid for working overtime, stating his wages were “repeatedly miscalculated.”
This settlement is the first resolution in the two lawsuits filed against Slutty Vegan ATL. On Sept. 13, the attorneys for a former Bar Vegan employee also pursuing a lawsuit against the company.