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You might not recognize the name Darden Restaurants, but you may have eaten at one of the company’s restaurant chains. This company, which owns Capital Grille, Long Horn Steakhouse, Olive Garden, and Red Lobster, is currently facing a wage and hour lawsuit, alleging they have several wages and hour violations, including laws regarding “side work” for tipped employees.
In the United States, the Fair Labor Standards Act (or FLSA) governs basic labor laws across the nation. One provision of the FLSA is that employees must be paid a minimum wage. For most jobs, this minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. However, servers may be paid less. Under federal law, there is a $2.13 per hour “tipped” minimum wage. But this tipped minimum requires that the $2.13 per hour plus tips must equal the regular $7.12 per hour minimum wage.
Still, most tipped workers must also perform “side work,” that is restaurant duties and responsibilities where they do not have a chance to make tips. Side work can include cleaning bathrooms, preparing a restaurant before opening, and other tasks where employees are not directly working with customers. Under the FLSA, “side work” cannot include more than 20 percent of an employee’s time, since it is expected that their tips are going to close the cap between $2.13 and $7.25. But several wage and hour lawsuits have alleged that Darden Restaurants have abused the side work clause and violated other FLSA wage and hour laws.
Darden Side Work Wage and Hour Lawsuit
In September of 2012, two employees who worked for Darden Restaurants in Florida have alleged that the restaurant company has broken several FLSA rules, including rules governing side work for tipped workers. The former employees alleged that Darden Restaurants made them come in before opening and prepare the restaurant for the day before they were allowed to clock in. If this claim is true, this could represent a wage and hours violation in terms of side work, working off the clock, and other possible FLSA violations. The Darden wage and hour lawsuit further alleged that this is not an isolated incident, meaning that the plaintiffs may be lobbying for a wage and hour class action lawsuit against Darden.
Darden Restaurants have been on the receiving end of a number of Department of Labor investigations that ended in tens of thousands of dollars in fines for the company. In 2011, two separate federal investigations of Texas Darden Restaurants resulted in fines and back-pay for employees. The investigations closely looked at an Olive Garden in Mesquite, Texas, and another monitored a Red Lobster in Lubbock, Texas. The Olive Garden wage and hour investigation ended with Darden paying $25,000 in back pay to their employees. The Red Lobster was allegedly found to owe even more, to the tune of $27,000 in back pay to their employees. Additionally, Darden was assessed federal fines that totaled more than the owed unpaid wages. The allegations made in these cases were similar to those made in the side work FLSA lawsuit from Florida currently awaiting further litigation.
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5 thoughts onDarden Wage and Hour Lawsuit Alleges Excessive Side Work
Is there a statute of limitations on working for server pay, $2.01, while doing side work? I worked for Red Lobster while it was still owned by General Mills and then by Darden, a total of 10 years starting in Orlando and then working in Louisiana. This was between the years 1984 to 1996. That last year I was a dining room manager in Texas but was fired for giving the alarm code to a key employee to the doors left unlocked from the manager the night before. I was fired for having no common sense. That’s another story.
I worked for Red Lobster til 6-01-2017. We currently have to do side work that was an hourly payed employee job but they deleted it and gave to servers. We roll silerware, breakdown and clean the AC alley at close for $2.13 an hour. Usually start an hour before close to up to an hour after close. We breakdown the salad bar and clean it, we breakdown the A1 ( burn ice,change and refill sauce pans and wrap and day dot put away) clean window, drink station breakdown and burn ice bins, mop and sweep, and refill salad dressing, break down and clean bread station and dessert and refill to go boxes. All for $2.13 an hour! Truthfully for zero dollars.
I currently work as a busser at Olife Garden and get pulled to be a dishwasher in the middle of my shift, shouldn’t that classify?
I was made to do side work off the clock (deep clean walls, detailing resturant) as while as working 7 days a week open to close than having my hours shaved down to no more than 20 hours a week.
I wrk @ olive garden & yes they make us do side work .is this legal