LANSING, Mich. — We’ve talked about Zaytoon in Lansing before and told you about former employees who say they worked at the restaurant without pay. Now, more allegations are coming forward.
“It’s just excuse, after excuse, after excuse,” said former employee Jason Kinney, who said he worked at Zaytoon since March and is still owed $1,500.
We’re also told the restaurant owes Jason’s girlfriend, who asked not to be on camera, over $600. The couple said the person to blame, is the restaurant’s owner, Samy Aburashed.
“He’s taking advantage of people, and he’s doing it over and over again,” said Kinney’s girlfriend. “He hires people, rips them off and hurts more people.”
Kinney and his girlfriend says there were a couple times Aburashed wrote them checks that got bounced, and they had receipts.
“This is a check we took to the banks, they refused to cash it because funds weren’t available, and this is another check, my payroll check, and it bounced,” Kinney’s girlfriend said.
Kinney also sent us screenshots of text messages that he said came from Aburashed. After reviewing the screenshots, I noticed it's the same number Aburashed called us on when we interviewed him for previous stories.
We reached out to Aburashed who provided us with this statement saying, "any and all employee grievances have been heard, acknowledged, and are privately being handled and resolved. Fox News has no business whatsoever in our private legal matters that are being handled and should not continue jeopardizing ongoing investigations more than it already unnecessarily has."
But Jason and his girlfriend aren’t the ones who made these allegations. We reached out the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, who confirmed that there are currently 10 open complaints against Zaytoon.
“I don’t know when someone is going to put a stop to it. It's not fair,” Kinney’s girlfriend said.
As for Kinney and his girlfriend, they said they’re seeking legal help.
“If we don’t get paid, we have to go to the law file a lawsuit or a data suit, I’m not sure yet,” Kinney said.
