A former employee of Ye’s company, Yeezy LLC, had dropped her effort to obtain a default judgment against the entity for not participating to date in her lawsuit, in which she alleges she suffered retaliation when she complained about missed meal breaks.
Plaintiff Maya Stewart sued Yeezy and Gap LLC, which has responded to the complaint and denied her allegations, in Los Angeles Superior Court. The 46-year-old Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, is not a defendant in the suit.
On Friday, Judge Mel Red Recana signed an order affirming an agreement by the parties to halt the default effort. Yeezy was directed to file an answer to the complaint in five days.
According to her suit, Stewart 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 provide her deserved overtime pay, according to the suit.
Stewart’s attorney filed a request for default judgment against Yeezy with 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 Yeezy Gap apparel line deal, announced with heavy publicity in 2020, was expected to last a decade and earn $1 billion annually, but the partnership ended in September 2022.