Lisa Vanderpump is being sued by a former Pump server who is accusing her of “failing to pay employees” and “manipulating time cards” in a class-action lawsuit.
Months after a different employee filed a separate class-action suit against the ex-Real Housewives of Beverly Hills castmate, her husband Ken Todd, and SUR, former employee Ernest Bennick has filed a lawsuit on behalf of himself and other staffers who have experienced similar behavior at Pump.
On March 19, The Sun confirmed the filing was made in October 2020 by Ernest, who worked at Pump from July 2018 to December 2019, and said Lisa and Ken are being accused of failing to pay overtime wages to their employees for “at least” the past four years and “requiring employees to be on-call” without compensation.
The staff of Pump also claim their time records were “manipulated or edited” to “show lesser hours than actually worked during the pay period” and that supervisors of the restaurant were allowed to receive the tips that were left for wait staff.
The lawsuit went on to claim that in recent years, Pump failed to pay employees the full amount of their wages upon termination or resignation and did not provide staff with the legally required rest or lunch breaks. As Ernest explained in his court documents, he and other servers typically worked “more than 10 hours” without proper breaks.
In response to the lawsuit, Lisa and her husband Ken filed a formal response in November 2020, denying all accusations against them.
The parties are due in court for a hearing in April.
As RHOBH fans may recall, Olivia Beverly Hanson filed a lawsuit in July 2020 on behalf of herself and her co-workers at SUR, where Vanderpump Rules is filmed, claiming Lisa and Ken “failed to pay workers minimum and overtime wages, provide proper meal and rest breaks, provide accurate wage statements or provide workers with pay stubs at the end of their employment.”
Olivia worked at SUR from October 2019 to January 2020.
Following Olivia’s lawsuit, a number of Pump Rules cast members spoke out in defense of Lisa and Ken.
“I’ve always taken a break when I wanted and have always gotten paid the correct amount. Even looking back since I was a busboy it was legit and fair. Been at sur for years now,” James Kennedy wrote on Twitter.
“This is so ridiculous… Since working as a waitress at SUR for two years have always taken a break when I’ve wanted one and always gotten paid fairly. It has never been an issue. This lawsuit just doesn’t seem right to me,” Raquel Leviss stated.
Danica Dow also weighed in, tweeting, “This isn’t true. I’ve never personally been or even heard of, anybody not being paid.”