A former employee of Ye’s company, Yeezy LLC, is seeing a default judgment against the entity for not participating to date in her lawsuit alleging she suffered retaliation when she complained about missed meal breaks.
Plaintiff Maya Stewart sued Yeezy and Gap LLC, which has responded to the complied and denied her allegations, in Los Angeles Superior Court on March 28. Stewart says she was hired by Yeezy and Gap in January 2021 as an accessories developer who designed products, producing a sample product from a preliminary sketch and making samples from textiles and materials both owned by Stewart and provided by the companies.
But in the spring of 2021, Stewart complained about alleged meal and rest break violations as well as compensation for overtime and business-related expenses and her hourly pay was reduced from $60 to $50, the suit filed March 28 states.
Stewart again submitted written requests to the companies for overtime pay in June 2021 and submitted another invoice the next month for compensation, the suit states.
But to date, in retaliation for complaining about wages, the companies have not paid Stewart for the June 2021 invoice and have further failed to her deserved overtime pay, according to the suit.
Stewart’s attorney filed a request for default judgment against Yeezy with Judge Mel Red Recana on May 25, but the document does not state the amount of damages sought. Recana has scheduled a case management conference for Aug. 9.
The 45-year-old Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, is not a defendant in the suit. The Yeezy Gap apparel line deal, announced with much fanfare in 2020, was touted to be for a decade and earn $1 billion annually, but the partnership ended last September.