Taco Bell Workers Look to Expand Overtime Pay Lawsuit Class

A group of Taco Bell assistant managers recently asked the federal judge in charge of their overtime pay class action lawsuit to expand the class.

The overtime class action lawsuit alleges that, under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Taco Bell misclassified these assistant managers as a way to avoid having to pay proper overtime wages.

The Tennessee federal judge, U.S. District Judge Jon P. McCalla, denied the overtime pay class’ nationwide conditional certification earlier this month.

The judge granted conditional class certification for managers at only two Taco Bell locations in Memphis, though plaintiffs had hoped to spread the class certification across the country.

Plaintiffs argued in their request for expanding the class that limiting the class in such a fashion puts too high a burden on these few plaintiffs, and also limits their ability to see if this is a more widespread issue with the Taco Bell chain across the nation.

According to FLSA rules, there only needs to be a moderate amount of facts showing the potential that other similar plaintiffs exist in Taco Bell stores across the country.

The workers wrote in their request that the need for facts showing plaintiffs in similar situations “does not require conclusive proof that other plaintiffs were in a similar situation to the named plaintiff.”

Judge McCalla ruled, however, that Taco Bell’s written policies, which apply to their restaurants nationwide, adequately follow FLSA labor laws.

This is Judge McCalla’s reasoning that workers cannot expand to a “classwide policy,” showing that the restaurant change violated FLSA on a nationwide scale. Instead, the judge decided that the overtime pay lawsuit had to focus on the Memphis stores, as well as determine if these stores were anomalies in the restaurant chain.

Workers argued back, claiming that without the overtime pay lawsuit being certified as a nationwide class, attorneys wouldn’t have the ability to figure out if the restaurant’s policies were enforced at locations across the country, or if the Memphis stores were alone.

“The law is clear that a plaintiff seeking conditional certification need not show that an employer’s policies were facially unlawful — indeed, were that so, no FLSA misclassification case could ever be certified because companies do not draft facially misclassifying job descriptions,” wrote the Taco Bell workers.

Taco Bell Overtime Pay Lawsuit

The lead plaintiff in this overtime pay lawsuit, Doris Tyler, alleges that even in her position as an assistant manager, she spent the majority of her time at Taco Bell doing labor like cleaning, taking out the trash, and other jobs that employees who are eligible for overtime pay might do.

Taco Bell claims that this is not due to misclassification as an assistant manager, but simply because Doris failed to properly perform her duties as an assistant manager. These duties might include budgeting and monitoring.

Workers noted that nationwide certification has been granted in other cases based solely on the depositions of a few workers. In Whittington v. Taco Bell, a similar FLSA unpaid overtime suit, conditional certification was granted to 400 workers. This certification led to a $2.5 million settlement.

If you or someone you know works for or has worked for an employer like Taco Bell that you believe to have broken FLSA labor laws such as unpaid overtime pay, you may be able to file a lawsuit.

The Taco Bell Unpaid Overtime Class Action Lawsuit is Tyler v. Taco Bell of America Inc. et al., Case No. 2:15-cv-02084, in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, Western Division.

Join a Free Wage & Hour Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you were forced to work off the clock or without overtime pay within the past 3 years, you have rights – and you don’t have to take on the company alone.

Get a Free Case Evaluation Now