Restaurant Chains Hit with Wage Theft Lawsuits
In recent years, most "fast casual" restaurants have faced various wage theft lawsuits. Violations include shaving hours, misappropriating tips, unfairly paying for side jobs. For example, Ruby Tuesday settled a $3 million time shaving suit in 2014, Outback Steakhouse settled a $3 million for making workers complete pre-shift work before clocking in, and Papa Johns was ordered to pay over $2 million for rounding down hours, failing to pay overtime and reimbursing for fees associated with bicycle delivery, and for paying non-tipped workers the "tipped" minimum wage. These lawsuits coincide with the fight for $15 movement and debates surrounding the tipped minimum wage for servers. These "fast casual" restaurants must be more diligent to protect the rights of their workers and increased compliance to expose these wage theft violations must be considered.
See "Restaurant Chains Hit with Wage Theft Lawsuits", Louis Pechman, Huffington Post, May 12, 2017