Tag: labor
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Second Circuit Dismisses Starbucks Tip-Sharing Suit
In a summary order, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of employee claims that Starbucks Corp. violated New York law by allowing shift supervisors to share store tip pools with baristas. Barenboim v. Starbucks Corp., No. 10-4912 (2d Cir., decided November 21, 2013). Details about the New York Court of…
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Frito-Lay to Settle Wage-and-Hour Class Action for $1.6 Million
Subject to court approval, Frito-Lay will pay $1.6 million to settle wage-andhour claims filed on behalf of current and former employees who deliver its products to stores and arrange the store displays. Elliott v. Rolling FritoLay Sales, LP, No. 11-1730 (C.D. Cal., filed November 9, 2011). A hearing on the plaintiff’s motion for preliminary approval will…
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Wage-and-Hour Class Action Against Starbucks Settled, Attorney’s Fees Slashed
A federal court in California has given final approval to the settlement of a wage-and-hour class action against Starbucks Corp., including less than half of what plaintiffs’ counsel originally requested as attorney’s fees. York v. Starbucks Corp., No. 08-7919 (C.D. Cal., decided October 29, 2013). Starbucks apparently objected to the request for nearly $4.5 million, excluding…
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Red Lobster Sued for Sexually Hostile Environment
As the fiscal year came to a close and on the eve of the federal government shutdown, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed nearly two dozen employment discrimination lawsuits including one against GMRI, Inc. alleging discrimination based on sex on behalf of a class of women employees at a Salisbury, Maryland, Red Lobster Restaurant.…
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Former Benihana Chef Claims FLSA Violations and Retaliation
On behalf of current and former Benihana chefs, a former chef has filed an action under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) alleging that the company forced chefs to work off the clock without compensation, illegally deducted from the chefs’ tips to provide tips to employees not entitled to share them and harassed or fired…
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EEOC Files Gender Discrimination Complaint Against Food Distributor
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has filed a complaint against Performance Food Group, Inc., alleging that it had a “standard operating procedure of denying employment to female applicants for operative positions in its [warehouse] facilities on the basis of their gender”; EEOC also alleges that the defendant failed to promote a woman at its…
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Brewery Worker Claims Free Beer Was Part of Regular Base Pay
A former non-exempt Anheuser-Busch brewery worker in California has filed a putative class action against the company alleging that it violated the state labor code by failing to include the value of free or discounted beer—termed “incentive pay”—in employees’ regular pay rates and thus undercompensated them by calculating overtime pay on the basis of pay…
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T.G.I. Friday’s to Address Leave Policy Issues
According to a news source, restaurant chain T.G.I. Friday’s has agreed to make leave-policy changes affecting the employees working at its 272 company-owned facilities. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division apparently discovered violations of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act during an investigation of a company restaurant in Shreveport, Louisiana. The…