Red Robin Employees Secure $8.5M Class Action Settlement

Red Robin has reached a deal with wait staff who filed a class action lawsuit alleging that the chain violated California wage and hour laws. To note, California labor laws are more rigorous than the national norms.

The restaurant will pay $8.5 million to be rid of claims that the company committed a range of wage and hour violations, including not providing sufficient breaks, not paying Red Robin employees for all hours worked, failing to reimburse workers for necessary expenses, not paying workers their wages due when their employment ended, and not itemizing wage statements.

The class of workers who will benefit from the class action settlement reportedly consists of 16,790 hourly employees who have worked at the approximately 70 California restaurants since July 2013. The proposed settlement now awaits preliminary approval. 

Previously, a class of employees was certified by U.S. District Judge James V. Selna. He certified the class in October 2018, and in so doing, also decertified around 2,600 class members in February 2019 who had signed arbitration agreements with their employer.

W&H Violation Claims

In their Red Robin California wage and hour class action lawsuit, workers took issue with their employer’s practice of not designating rest breaks, but instead, having a policy in which staff would be granted a rest break anytime upon request. Allegedly, this policy was known as Red Robin’s “Just Say Yes” policy.

Red Robin employees argued that this policy did not comply with California labor law on rest breaks, which, in most cases, requires an employer to offer employees a ten-minute break for each four-hour work period. In their opinion, workers do not feel comfortable asking for a break when they need one, which leads them to take fewer breaks than they are entitled to take.

The plaintiffs said that whether or not the “Just Say Yes” policy complied with California law was dependent on how much the company prompted workers to take breaks. However, California Red Robin employees alleged that, in many cases, the requirements of their jobs were such that they did not feel able or empowered to take breaks when needed.

Red Robin workers also assert that they were not given sufficient meal periods during their shifts. They note that staff can waive their right to a meal break, but staff says that they were denied sufficient meal breaks even though they were not asked to waive their rights.

In addition to their complaints around rest breaks, Red Robin hourly employees take issue with a range of elements of Red Robin’s wage and hour policies. Allegedly, they are required to perform off-the-clock work, but are not paid for it. Plaintiffs explain that workers are required to launder their uniforms off-the-clock but are not paid to do so. A McDonald’s class action lawsuit also noted plaintiffs taking issue with uniform maintenance.

Cal Chamber Alert notes that the subject of off-the-clock work has been one at issue in the courts, with judges determining that workers do need to be paid for off-the-clock work.

Class Action Settlement Amounts

Of the over 16,000 Red Robin employees potentially eligible for benefits, the class action settlement agreement noted that Red Robin’s internal records of how many hours their employees worked would be used to determine eligibility. Because of this system, Class Members do not need to fill out a claim form to receive benefits. Instead, funds will automatically be distributed to entitled individuals.

All uncashed checks will not revert to Red Robin, states the settlement. Instead, they will be given to the unclaimed property office for the State of California.

Class Members will not have access to the entire $8.5 million settlement fund, however. The two lead plaintiffs with receive $55,000 for their role of in the claim, on top of the amount they would receive as a normal Class Member. Around a third of the settlement will be allocated to cover attorney fees — around $2.8 million, in addition to $375,000 for litigation costs. The claims administrator, ILYM Group Inc., will be paid up to $135,000 to administer the settlement.

The Red Robin California Wage and Hour Class Action Lawsuit is Case No. 8:17-cv-01422, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

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