Former Battalion Chief Edward Tierney, who was called to the...

A Manhattan caterer-to-the-stars pocketed her waitstaff’s “tips” for years, her staffers allege in a new lawsuit — and now she’s set to fork over a gratuity of her own to settle the dispute.

Carla Ruben’s West Village company Creative Edge Parties — which has hawked fancy finger food to celebs including Beyoncé, Alicia Keys and Calvin Klein — tacks an 18% “service charge” onto every bill, according to the class-action suit filed Tuesday in Bronx Supreme Court.

Tony Barnes, a former waiter for the company, claims in court papers that clients assume the fee will go to waiters, bussers and bartenders — but instead of divvying up the dough, Ruben deposits it into her own coffers.

“[She and others] prey upon the moral conscience of the host to say, ‘Do the right thing. You’re going to have happy help, it’s a generous tip, and you’re going to have a better party,” Barnes’ lawyer, Jeffrey Brown, told The Post. “But they don’t distribute the service charge or any charge that purports to be a gratuity.”

Barnes filed the suit on behalf of himself and roughly a thousand other staffers, seeking back-pay along with interest and attorney’s fees for work at events ranging from lavish birthdays parties to upscale bar mitzvahs, the suit states.

An attorney for Ruben, David Berger, disputed that her firm misled staffers and customers.

“This is not a case of some owner of a business treating people badly and not paying them their wage … They have staff making $50-$65 an hour,” he said. “We do not believe that people were misled to assume that it was a tip when it was not.”

Still, she plans to settle the case because the cost of fighting the lawsuit is too high, he said.

Brown claimed Barnes and other waitstaff are negotiating a “seven-figure settlement” with the firm. Berger wouldn’t comment on how much it might be.

Other well-heeled clients served by the catering company have included Serena Williams and the Museum of Modern Art.