One Year Ago Today (December 8, 2023)…A woman has settled her lawsuit against Wolfgang Puck’s Spago restaurant in which she alleged she was forced to resign from her server job at the Puck flagship eatery in 2022 because of repeated sexual harassment by male employees that left her in tears.
Mounia Khoutaibi’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit’s allegations also included discrimination, retaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and state Labor Code violations. Her attorneys filed court papers on Nov. 22 stating that the case was settled, but no terms were divulged.
Lawyers for the four Puck entities sued stated in their court papers that Khoutaibi was employed by SBH Restaurant Associates LLC and not by any of the other three defendants. The defense lawyers denied any wrongdoing on SBH’s part and also maintained that the plaintiff’s causes of action were “barred, in whole or in part, to the extent (Khoutaibi) consented to any and/or all of the conduct…”
Khoutaibi was hired as a server at the Beverly Hills bistro in June 2022.
“Almost immediately when she started at Spago, Khoutaibi noticed the male servers and kitchen staff leering at her body whenever she walked past them,” the suit states.
As a new worker, Khoutaibi kept her head down and tried to ignore them, the suit filed June 14 stated.
A month after Khoutaibi started, a new busser was hired who constantly leering at her from “head to toe,” the suit states.
When the busser asked the plaintiff if she had a boyfriend, she replied affirmatively hoping to rebuff any further such inquiries, the suit stated. Khoutaibi tried to stay away from the busser, which was hard because she often needed to talk to him in connection with her job, the suit stated.
A month later Khoutaibi was working at a computer desk when the busser put his hand on her upper back and slid it all the way down to her lower back, which caused the plaintiff to freeze and feel “sick to her stomach,” her suit stated.
At the time she was dealing with the busser’s alleged misconduct, a food expediter approached her one day and called her, “My love,” leaving her feeling even more anxious than before, the complaint stated.
When the lead server found out from a third party that Khoutaibi was unhappy and inquired with her, the plaintiff “broke down and began crying,” the suit stated.
However, Khoutaibi was sent back to work without any protection offered and immediately after her complaints, multiple male employees began touching the plaintiff and making inappropriate comments to her, the suit stated.
Khoutaibi resigned in September 2022 in frustration that human resources and other management representatives did nothing to stem the male workers’ alleged harassment, the suit stated. The plaintiff suffered both financial losses and emotional distress, according to her suit.