Attorney General Schwalb Secures $1.75 Million Wage Theft Judgment Against District Restaurant and Its Owner

Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb today announced that the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) secured a $1.75 million judgment against Talea Ristorante and its owner, Hamza Hadani, for systematically stealing employees' wages and violating numerous laws that protect District workers.

The judgment requires Talea and Hadani to pay $1,332,408 in restitution to 95 harmed restaurant workers, and to pay $420,000 in penalties for violating District law. Although the restaurant has closed, OAG will seek to enforce the judgment against the business and Hadani and to recover the back wages, stolen tips, and other restitution that workers are owed.

"The level of wage theft and worker abuse at Talea was shocking, and this judgment is a victory for each of the servers, hosts, bussers, and bartenders who were systematically exploited," said Attorney General Schwalb. "Notwithstanding the closing of this restaurant, our team will do everything in our power to enforce this judgment. We also will continue to educate restaurant workers about their legal protections under DC law-and strongly encourage anyone experiencing wage theft or other workplace abuse to come forward to our office."

Talea Lawsuit and Judgment

Talea was an Italian restaurant in Ward 3's Cathedral Heights neighborhood. Its owner, Hamza Hadani, is an experienced restauranteur who owns several other restaurants in the District. In a lawsuit filed in February 2025, OAG alleged that despite Hadani's years of experience in the restaurant industry, he and Talea violated multiple District wage-and-hour laws.

OAG's lawsuit detailed how Talea and Hadani violated a wide array of District laws that protect DC workers, including by paying employees less than half of the tipped minimum wage, failing to ensure tipped workers' take-home pay met the regular minimum wage, and denying workers paid sick leave and overtime pay, even as some of them worked 70-hour weeks. It also detailed how Hadani prohibited workers from discussing their pay with one another and retaliated against those who protested their mistreatment by threatening them and, in some cases, firing them.

In February 2026, the Superior Court entered judgment in favor of the District, ordering Talea and Hamdani to:

• Pay $1,332,408 in restitution to 95 former Talea workers. This includes:
  • $1,155,573 in worker restitution-including back wages and treble damages-for failure to pay earned wages, tipped minimum wages, regular minimum wages, overtime wages, and earned wages on time.
  • $136,834 in worker restitution for failure to provide workers with the paid sick leave they earned.
  • $40,000 in worker restitution for four counts of unlawful retaliation.
    
• Pay $420,000 in civil penalties for violating District law. This includes:
  • $190,000 in penalties for violating the District's wage and hour laws.
  • $95,000 in penalties for violating the Sick and Safe Leave Act.
  • $95,000 in penalties for violating the Wage Transparency Act.
  • $40,000 in penalties for unlawful retaliation against workers in violation of multiple DC laws.

The judgment is available here.

This matter was handled by Assistant Attorneys General Jude Nwaokobia and Tascha Shahriari-Parsi, former Assistant Attorney General Morgan Sperry, and Investigator Na'eelah Bakari under the supervision of Assistant Section Chief Dennis Corkery and Section Chief Graham Lake.

Highlighting Worker Abuses At Talea & Alerting Restaurant Workers About Their Rights

Talea and Hadani systematically violated DC laws protecting workers. OAG is seeking to inform restaurant workers of these critical protections, and to encourage workers to come forward if their rights are being violated in similar ways.

Restaurant workers should know that:

• Workers are entitled to written notice outlining their pay and pay schedule. Hadani and Talea only orally informed workers about their pay and pay schedule, but did not do so in writing. They then used this lack of clarity to change pay dates and systematically steal wages. Under DC law, employers must provide employees with written notice at the time of hiring, which must include their rate of pay, designated pay date, and any tip sharing policy.
  
• Tipped workers' base wage rate, excluding tips, must be at the tipped minimum wage (currently $10). Hadani and Talea paid many of their tipped workers $3.99 per hour (less than half the DC tipped minimum wage), despite worker complaints. This is not permitted under DC law. Employers must pay tipped workers a base rate of at least $10 per hour (the tipped minimum wage) in addition to all tips earned in accordance with the company's tip sharing policy.
  
• Tipped workers' total hourly earnings must meet or exceed the regular minimum wage (currently $17.95). Talea failed to ensure that its tipped employees' hourly take-home pay (including tips) amounted to at least the regular minimum wage for each hour worked. This is unlawful. DC employers are required to supplement tipped employees' wages to ensure they earn up to the minimum wage ($17.95) for each hour worked.
  
• Workers must be paid overtime wages of 1.5 times their hourly rate for any hours worked over 40 per workweek. Many Talea workers worked over 40 hours per week. Yet Hadani and Talea failed to pay the workers the required overtime premium of 1.5x the worker's hourly rate for their hours above 40. This conduct violated DC law. Employers must pay employees an overtime premium when they work more than 40 hours in a workweek.
  
• Workers must be paid at least the minimum wage ($17.95) for training time. Talea refused to pay workers who worked during the restaurant's training period but were not later scheduled for another shift. Talea also paid some workers $9 per hour for training time. These acts are illegal.
  
• Employers cannot unlawfully deduct from a worker's pay. Hadani took Talea workers out to dinner at one of his restaurants and, after they had eaten, informed them that he intended to deduct the cost of the food from their paychecks. This is unlawful under DC law. Employers cannot announce pay deduction after the fact. In addition, any wage deduction should not bring a worker's pay rate below the minimum wage and must be outlined in an itemized paystub to the worker.
  
• Workers must be paid on designated pay days. Hadani repeatedly promised to pay employees on a particular day but then failed to do so. The workers' paychecks would arrive days late, and some paychecks bounced when workers tried to deposit them. Under DC law, employers must pay workers in full on designated pay days, and workers are entitled to interest for late payments.
  
• Workers are allowed to discuss their pay with each other. Hadani instructed Talea workers to not discuss or pass around information regarding their pay or discuss pay with their coworkers. This is unlawful under DC law. Under the District's Wage Transparency Law, which went into effect in June 2024, workers are allowed to discuss their pay with each other as well as wage related concerns. Sharing pay information with coworkers is a powerful tool for spotting illegal pay practices and combating wage theft.
  
• Workers are entitled to accrued paid sick leave. Hadani and Talea did not provide any paid sick leave to workers, forcing them to find coverage for their shifts and go unpaid while recovering from illness or providing care to their family members. This is a violation of DC law. Depending on company size, employers must provide workers up to three, five, or seven days of accrued paid sick leave. Specifically, in the restaurant industry, employers must provide up to five days of accrued paid sick leave. Employers are required to track and maintain records of the accrued leave. Employees may start using this leave after 90 days of employment.
  
• Workers cannot be required to provide a doctor's note for taking three (or fewer) sick days in a row. Hadani informed Talea workers that they must provide a doctor's note for any medical absence, no matter the length. This violated DC law. An employer can only request a doctor's note or certification if the worker is or will be absent for more than three consecutive days.
  
• Workers must be provided itemized paystubs. Hadani and Talea did not provide employees with paystubs that showed their pay rate and hours worked on several occasions. Talea workers could not verify their pay, which helped Hadani and Talea hide their wage theft scheme. This conduct is illegal under DC law. Employers must provide itemized paystubs that detail wages, tips, deductions, and the exact amount earned for every hour worked.
  
• Employers cannot discipline, threaten, or otherwise retaliate against workers for complaining about potential violations of District wage laws. Hadani retaliated against four workers by firing them, suspecting they had contacted the OAG after being vocal about their stolen wages. Retaliating against workers for reporting potential violations like those listed above-whether through harassment, demotions, termination, or reduced hours-is illegal. It is also illegal to retaliate against a worker for voicing concerns about their rights under District law to their employer, to coworkers, or to any other person. OAG has a zero-tolerance policy for such retaliatory conduct.
  

How to Report Wage and Hour Violations
Workers who believe that their rights have been violated, or that they have experienced wage theft or other wage and hour violations, can contact OAG by calling (202) 724-7730 or by emailing [email protected] or [email protected].

OAG's Efforts to Protect Workers
OAG's Workers' Rights and Antifraud Section is dedicated to fighting wage theft, protecting District workers, and ensuring that businesses in the District compete on a level playing field. Since AG Schwalb became the District's elected, independent Attorney General in January 2023, OAG has secured more than $23 million for workers and the District. In total, since gaining independent wage theft enforcement authority in 2015, OAG has secured over $39 million by investigating and bringing enforcement actions against employers who violate District law. OAG's wage theft enforcement efforts have focused on industries with high populations of vulnerable workers, such as construction, restaurants and hospitality, healthcare, and the gig economy. Learn more about OAG's efforts to uphold workers' rights over the last year in OAG's 2025 Labor Day Report.

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