Inside Kanye West's Six-Figure Sum Deal In Class Action Suit

Kanye ‘Ye’ West‘s former employees are seeking an already hatched-out deal in their class action lawsuit to be upheld. The rapper and his company reportedly offered to pay the plaintiff a six-figure sum to make the case a thing of the past.

Kanye West’s latest proposed settlement is one of the many lawsuits he is currently named in.

The class action lawsuit reportedly involves two previous employees, Taliah Leslie and Shelby Grochowski, who started working with Yeezy in November 2019 as assistant designer and assistant patternmaker, respectively.

The rapper and the ex-employees have reportedly been attempting to settle the case since October 2022 after Ye and his company denied all wrongdoing. In May, after Shelby was allowed on the case as an additional plaintiff, it paved the way for the settlement. The agreement noted:

“Defendants deny any liability or wrongdoing of any kind associated with the claims alleged in the Action, disputes the damages and penalties claimed by Plaintiffs, and further contends that, for any purpose other than settlement, Plaintiffs’ claims are not appropriate for class or representative action treatment. Defendants contend, among other things, that, at all times, they have complied with the California Labor Code and the Industrial Wage Commission Orders.”

Per In Touch, the producer’s wife, Bianca Censori, reportedly signed the dotted lines on behalf of her husband and his company, Yeezy, to pay a sum of $625,000 in settlement.

They both claimed to have been classified as independent contractors when they should have been non-exempt employees.

The lawsuit explained that Yeezy and Ye “eventually reclassified [Shelby] as an employee despite giving him the same job duties, but misclassified him as exempt from overtime when his true classification should have been non-exempt.”

As for Taliah, her 2021 lawsuit accused the designer and his company of various labor code violations, “including the failure to pay overtime wages, minimum wages, meal and rest break premiums, willful misclassification, wage statement violations, recordkeeping violations, and the failure to pay all wages upon the termination of employment.”

Taliah explained that she worked for the rapper’s company from November 2019 to March 2020.

The plaintiff continued that Ye failed to compensate her and the affected employees for “off- the-clock work on the jobsite, for compulsory travel to and from out-of-town locations (including travel to Cody, Wyoming, and Paris, France).”

She also mentioned that she and the aggrieved employees performed “compulsory travel to and from the out-of-town jobsites, and for other off-the-clock work” with Ye and his team’s knowledge and/or consent. The 2021 lawsuit claimed:

“This resulted in Defendant failing to compensate all overtime hours worked when Plaintiff and Aggrieved Employees worked over eight hours in one day or forty hours in one week. Defendants also failed to compensate other Aggrieved Employees who were misclassified as exempt from overtime pay.“

Taliah added that she and the aggrieved employees “regularly worked in excess of five (5) and/or ten (10) hours a day without being provided at least half-hour meal periods in which they were relieved of all duties and free to leave the work site or facility during the meal period.”

She claimed that Ye controlled the working conditions by imposing rules based on his personal tastes and preferences. Taliah noted that the rapper stopped employees from eating indoors because he did not like the smell of the food in the area.

He reportedly left ground rules that all employees must “eat outdoors for all their meals at work, regardless of inclement weather or the presence of any suitable seating.”

The rapper’s employees certainly have no problem ditching his company due to his unpredictable ways.

The Blast reported in May that his wingman, Milo Yiannopoulos, resigned from the company after Ye decided to venture into adult entertainment, which he was not comfortable with.

“I wish Ye every success in the future. I have some concerns about his new team and hope he proceeds with caution,” the 39-year-old executive who had been working with him for about two years said.

Yiannopoulus stated that his moral and religious beliefs disallow him from participating in the distribution of pornographic material. He noted that the move poses a danger to his progress as a recovering addict and a risk to “spiritual and physical health as a former homosexual.”

The business executive, however, declared that he would consider returning if Ye changed his mind on the porn deal.

Kanye West is still facing a sexual assault lawsuit by a former assistant.