For many of us, the holidays are a time to reconnect with family and share stories of the last year, and few things have been a richer source of stories this year than the sordid deeds of the Royal India owners and our campaign for justice.

The tale has a great hook – people are amazed to learn that the Bhattis have robbed more than 20 workers, and often shocked that they got away with it time and again. As listeners lean in, we take them on a long journey. It becomes a detective story as we delve into the Bhattis’ track record and uncover new dirt – the filthy kitchen lawsuit, the illegal evictions, the nannies the family robbed and abused, the 8 models they hired for a photo shoot and then didn’t pay. It detours into comedy as we describe the impotently angry face of Aeisha Bhatti this spring when she tried to suppress our protest and ended up arguing with the police outside the door of her restaurant for the better part of an hour (side note: this tactic has still not worked and the face remains the same!) It touches on social issues – immigration, race, class, caste, gender, pandemic politics (did you know they got a PPP loan, while committing wage theft?) It veers into the absurd this summer when Mr. Bhatti Sr. tells one picketer handing out leaflets to “put it in your ass”, and tells another picketer at a different action he will “eat your pussy”. It teases unexplored side quests as we learn how the Bhattis have conned customers at their wedding planning business, Marigold Design House. It marks the passing of the seasons, the slow burn of their Google rating declining over months while we surprise the Bhattis during summer festivals, Halloween, and on Thanksgiving day. And it keeps the listener guessing – what tactic will we try next? We have lots to choose from.

Unfortunately for the Bhattis, this story isn’t over yet. We’re still driving away customers, spreading their bad reputation to the world, and costing them thousands of dollars. All because they refuse to pay Juan and Pedro the $1,630 that they’re owed. Some bosses are smart and can do arithmetic, but the Bhattis are slow learners.

When we talk to people in the community about Royal India and its owners’ constant theft and abuse, many can’t believe they’d still be in business after doing all these things. Other folks we meet have an existing connection to Royal India and actually even more horror stories to share. There’s far more than we have time to write up, so we’ve got to prioritize!

This week’s horror story is special because it answers the first question: Could they really do this and get away with it?

Last Thursday (Aug 3) King County Public Health closed down Royal India at 3 PM because of an “imminent health hazard”. The bosses responded by ignoring the closure order and opening for dinner that same day. After calls from members of the community asking for additional followthrough, the health department showed up again on Friday and “reminded them” they were closed until further notice. That’s the courtesy bosses get. Unsurprising to our community, they continued to remain open and serving food all weekend.

The Bhattis have learned a lesson that we all should learn: Government is set up to shield business owners from accountability. This protection allows them to continue ripping ordinary people off without consequences, and they do. Even when workers or consumers manage to get laws passed that are supposed to protect them, the burden is on the victim to push and persuade the powerful (i.e., the government or bosses) to care, and any enforcement is often a joke.

Across the US, the amount of money lost to wage theft is greater than all robberies, burglaries and motor vehicle thefts combined. The majority of these stolen wages are never recovered by workers. [Source here.] When ordinary people fall behind on bills, we are constantly harassed by collection agencies. People (particularly BIPOC) are arrested (or killed) for stealing very little, but when business owners steal from their workers, the government barely bothers.

That’s why Aeisha Bhatti has a string of unpaid wage theft judgments and lost court cases that her family simply ignores. That’s why the Bhattis can illegally evict workers after robbing them. And that’s also why SeaSol exists. We’re not willing to plead with the government, then sit around and wait for them to do nothing. We’re working-class people who have come together to hold bosses accountable and win justice in our community.

It’s been 4 months since SeaSol and former Royal India workers delivered their demand letter to get their unpaid wages, and Royal India STILL hasn’t paid them. But what’s been happening since then? Here’s a summary:

• SeaSol and workers have been picketing steadily with plenty of energy to keep up the fight! Community members in Kirkland have shown overwhelming support, and many have their own stories to tell about bad experiences at Royal India.
• At every picket, more workers come forward. There is now a list of over 20 workers who have not been paid by the thieving Bhatti bosses, who try to scare them away. The stories are all the same: the workers’ weeks or months of hard work is met with no money, bounced checks, “come back tomorrow, come back next week” excuses, and/or threats and intimidation.
• Instead of paying their workers, the Royal India bosses have spent their money and time on having a lawyer write a bogus cease-and-desist letter (protesting is protected by the First Amendment) and very poorly-made counter picket signs. The Bhatti family appeared to rope in many different family members and spouses. They and their managers write phony reviews online pretending to be “very satisfied customers” or “happy workers” from Royal India.
• There are some exciting developments behind the scenes – stay tuned for more information soon!

The bosses at Royal India have no trouble lying to your face about their pattern of abusive behavior. Wage theft? They’ve never heard of it! Unpaid taxes? Certainly not!

Unfortunately for them, public records obtained by SeaSol don’t lie. When a worker in Washington State is robbed by their employer, they can file a claim with the Department of Labor and Industries (L&I). If the state finds in favor of the worker and the employer doesn’t pay, a warrant is eventually issued that becomes part of public court records. Guess how many wage theft warrants Royal India has?

• December 16, 2020: Wage theft warrant for $5,657
• April 13, 2022: Wage theft warrant for $3,729
• April 13, 2022: Wage theft warrant for $7,595
• January 18, 2023: Wage theft warrant for $2,767
• January 18, 2023: Wage theft warrant for $2,664

It’s easy to check this yourself. Just go to the L&I website’s wage violations page and search for Royal India. We still can’t tell if these workers were ever paid their stolen wages, let’s hope so.

But that’s not the only way the Bhatti family steals from workers and our community. They also don’t pay worker’s comp, payroll taxes or unemployment insurance.

When a business employs a worker, they’re also required to pay payroll taxes that go to the worker’s Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and unemployment insurance. They must send a W-2 form to the IRS and the worker documenting the wages and taxes paid. We’ve heard from several workers who haven’t gotten W-2s, meaning Royal India is most likely not paying these taxes. So it’s not surprising that we found these nine tax citations against Royal India.

• October 19, 2018: Unpaid tax warrant ($10,829)
• February 20, 2019: Unpaid tax warrant ($14,345)
• February 20, 2019: Unpaid tax warrant ($16,940)
• May 28, 2019: Unpaid tax warrant ($9,295)
• July 31, 2019: Unpaid tax warrant ($20,595)
• August 10, 2022: Unpaid tax warrant ($47,173)

• November 27, 2017: Unpaid workers’ comp warrant ($3,418)
• January 31, 2020: Unpaid unemployment tax warrant ($12,352)
• February 17, 2023: Unpaid workers’ comp warrant ($2,706)

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Why? Let us explain.

Reporting wage theft to the Department of Labor and Industries can be a long and intimidating process for working people, especially when they don’t speak fluent English. The bosses at Royal India have a history of threatening workers to scare them into silence.

Even when workers know and exercise their legal rights, the Labor and Industries (L&I) enforcement process is slow. When a worker files a claim, it takes 60 days for L&I to make a judgment. After that they may issue a citation to the employer. The employer can appeal, delaying the process further. When the worker finally wins, the state will “make every attempt to, but cannot guarantee, collection”. In other words, they don’t guarantee you’ll get paid. Good luck getting Royal India to pay when their vendors, the taxman, and their own landlord couldn’t.

When you’re struggling to make rent because you haven’t been paid for weeks or months of work, slogging through this bureaucracy might not be your best bet. Bosses know this; too often they get away with it because wage theft is hard to fight.

Consider this: you’ve had only a taste of the Bhatti family’s predatory behavior. Like many things you’d taste at Royal India, it’s dirtier than the owners let on. For them, robbing and abusing workers is a routine part of their business. Royal India’s bosses can threaten, lie, and bully all they want, but they can’t hide anymore. The evidence of their thieving is right there for the world to see.

The owners of Royal India have a long history of being sued in Washington State, but not all of the cases against them are about stealing wages from workers and citations by Labor and Industries. Some cases are about the horrendously unsanitary conditions in their kitchen and restaurant.

The landlord of the strip mall in which Royal India resides sued them to retake the property after Royal India harbored a massive rat infestation (King County court case 19-2-08019-1 SEA).

Photos from the lawsuit show dead rats, rat feces throughout the restaurant, raw meat left out, and food left out on the floor…

Tens of thousands of dollars in repair were needed to address the rats (individual checks listed on the case total $23,075 in rat damage!) including rats from Royal India invading other tenants at the strip mall…

The Bhatti family did not pay their rent or the rat damage, and has caused problems in the Juanita Square stripmall for many years.

In addition to causing thousands in damage with their unsanitary food handling and kitchen maintenance practices, court documents mention thousands of dollars of unpaid rent by Royal India to their landlord. Aeisha and Mohammad Bhatti’s refusal to pay what they owe seems to be a pattern of behavior for them–their landlord, along with their workers and other business associates, have a terrible time getting these thieving bosses to pay what they owe. 

Workers we have spoken with confirmed the disgusting conditions in the Royal India restaurants, mentioning additional food safety problems such as one of the bosses taking food off a customer’s half-eaten plate with his fingers and adding it to another customer’s about-to-be-served meal. Former workers’ primary concern is getting their hard-earned wages paid. Unsanitary conditions, on top of abusive labor practices, provide customers with all the more reason to boycott Royal India.

Are you a current or former worker at Royal India? Still not paid for your work?  Get in touch!