A woman has reached a tentative settlement in her lawsuit against Nobu Malibu LLC in which she says she was forced to resign from her server assistant job because she could no longer tolerate a sexualized atmosphere that included lewd jokes and inappropriate touching by both employees and customers.
Identified only as Jane Doe in the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit, the plaintiff maintained Nobu management expected female employees to put up with the raucous behavior. Her allegations included gender discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation and hostile work environment.
On Monday, Doe’s attorney filed court papers with Judge Steve Cochran notifying him of a “conditional” settlement in the case with the expectation a request for dismissal will be brought by Oct. 9.
No terms were divulged.
In their previous court papers, Nobu attorneys denied Doe’s allegations and cited multiple defenses, including violation of the statute of limitations and that her claims belonged in the workers’ compensation arena.
Doe was hired as a server assistant in October 2021. Despite the allegedly demeaning comments about her abilities from a manager who interviewed her, the plaintiff accepted the job because of Nobu’s reputable brand and the expectation of a professional work environment, the suit stated.
“However, that was unfortunately not the case for plaintiff,” the suit filed April 1 further stated.
The manager who interviewed Doe routinely commented on female employees’ breasts, normalizing a culture of sexual objectification in the workplace given his position of authority, the suit stated. Another male manager allegedly brushed up against her while she left dishes at the kitchen.
“Plaintiff was left feeling extremely violated, dirty and deeply disturbed by the entire interaction,” according to the suit, which further stated that the same manager later publicly berated Doe in the break room in front of 30 to 40 employees, causing her to cry.
A visibly intoxicated male customer once tried to kiss the plaintiff while she was serving drinks at a private event in the back event space of the restaurant, the suit stated. Doe pushed the patron away and immediately reported the incident to a male co-worker, who simply laughed, the suit stated.
Doe’s complaints about unruly guests were minimized and dismissed by management as if acceptance of such conduct was expected of female employees and Doe ultimately resigned in October 2022 in frustration, the suit stated.