U.S. House Rep. Maxwell Frost, a progressive Democrat from Orlando, sent a letter to a restaurant operator at Disney World’s EPCOT on Monday, pressing the company for information about its wage policies following allegations of wage theft made by several of its employees.
Last month, four cooks at EPCOT’s Italian restaurant Tutto Italia accused their employer, the Patina Group, of underpaying them by requiring them to do extra, unpaid work ahead of their shifts and for failing to pay them eligible overtime as required under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
The workers revealed this alleged practice of wage theft and threatened to file a lawsuit against the company if they weren’t made whole, at a press conference organized by their union, Unite Here Local 737. Frost attended the press conference in solidarity with the workers, along with State Rep. Anna Eskamani, a progressive running for Orlando mayor next year.
“My office has been contacted by constituents regarding allegations made by four employees who claim that they were not compensated for all the hours they worked over several years. As a member of the Congressional Labor Caucus who helps advance policies covering these matters, I am seeking additional information to better understand both the circumstances and the policies currently in place,” Frost wrote in his letter.
Frost’s letter was sent Monday, July 20, to the executive leadership of Delaware North, according to his press office. Delaware North, a multinational food service contractor that generates $3 billion-plus in revenue annually, is the parent company of the Patina Group.
Frost directed a number of questions to Delaware North leadership regarding their company policies for tracking employee work hours, payroll and timekeeping documentation, the process for tracking and approving overtime pay, and training for managers and supervisors on how to comply with federal wage and hour law.
According to attorneys with Sugarman Susskind & Braswell PA, the law firm representing the Patina Group workers, the Patina Group violated provisions of the workers’ collective bargaining agreement with Patina — negotiated by their union — as well as overtime requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
“Your violation was and is willful,” reads a letter from the firm, sent to Delaware North and Patina Group last month. “Tellingly, there was a brief period when you did do right by some of the Employees by compensating them from the time that they arrived to work for you; but then, perplexingly, you stopped and went right back to relying on their off-the-clock work.”
The letter alleged that four cooks at Tutto Italia have been unpaid for “pre-shift work” since 2020, with the exception of a two-week period from Dec. 22, 2025, to Jan. 5, 2026. During that two-week period, some of the employees’ records show they clocked in before their scheduled shift times and “generally did receive payment, including overtime premiums, for what would have otherwise been shift work,” according to their attorneys.
Altogether, the workers are collectively seeking roughly $134,000 — based on their regular pay rates and hours allegedly worked without pay — in addition to $7,700 for attorney’s fees.
Frost said last month that what the cooks are asking for is just the bare minimum. “All that Unite Here is saying, and all these workers are saying, is ‘Pay us what we’re owed.’ They’re not looking for any more, any less. They’re saying, ‘Pay us what we’re owed for the work that we have done to benefit your company and our community.’”
“All these workers are saying is, ‘Pay us what we’re owed.’ ”
U.S. House Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL)
The Patina Group, formerly known as the Patina Restaurant Group, operates 33 restaurants across the country, including Disney EPCOT’s Tutto Gusto, Tutto Italia, Via Napoli and Space 220, as well as five restaurants at Disney Springs: Enzo’s Hideaway, The Edison, Maria & Enzo’s, Morimoto Asia and Pizza Ponte.
Restaurant workers at the three Italy Pavilion restaurants operated by Patina are unionized with Unite Here Local 737. Workers at Patina’s restaurants at Disney Springs, meanwhile, first publicly launched their organizing drive with Unite Here Local 737 in 2024.
The Patina Group in May was ordered by the National Labor Relations Board, a federal agency that oversees private sector labor relations, to offer back pay and reinstatement to a cashier at Pizza Ponte that they unlawfully fired in retaliation for her pro-union organizing activity.
Julissa Ruiz, a 25-year-old employee who was effectively homeless while she worked at the Patina Group restaurant, had become a public face of the organizing drive. Unite Here filed a complaint with the NLRB over the allegedly unlawful firing. A trial date is set for Sept. 15, 2026.
