Michael A. Kakuk  |  April 24, 2017

Category: Labor & Employment

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Key Largo, Fl, USA - March 16, 2017: Exterior view of a Waffle House restaurant in Key Largo. Florida, United StatesA group of potential employees allege that Waffle House routinely uses background check information for employment decisions, without properly following state and federal laws.

Specifically, the Waffle House unlawful background check class action lawsuit asserts that the defendants violate the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) “in numerous ways—most conspicuously by failing to provide proper disclosures to applicants and/or employees prior to taking adverse actions against them.”

The FCRA requires employers to provide “pre-adverse action” notices to employees or job applicants before using any credit information against someone, according to the class action. Often credit information can be incorrect, or involve the wrong person, and such notices give employees an opportunity to dispute incorrect information.

The class action also contends that Waffle House gets its credit information from PublicData, a “shady, off-shore consumer reporting agency…providing slipshod consumer reports for literally ‘pennies’ on the dollar.” According to the Waffle House lawsuit, PublicData “maintains no policies or procedures whatsoever to ensure that it accurately assembles and provides” consumer information, because it does not believe it needs to follow the FCRA. However, the class action argues that PublicData is a “consumer reporting agency” under the FCRA, because it gathers data on consumers for the express purpose of selling reports to third parties.

Waffle House’s actions are “obviously an attempt to tamp down the cost of doing business, at the expense of the rights of Plaintiffs and putative class members,” the complaint claims.

The Waffle House unlawful background check class action lawsuit is brought by 20 plaintiffs, who all claim that they applied to Waffle House and were not employed. Several were told that they would not be hired based on information in their background checks. All plaintiffs contend that Waffle House followed its policy to obtain credit and other personal information as part if its background check without their knowledge or permission.

The unlawful background check lawsuit requests certification of two Classes: the first is all people in the U.S. who applied or were employed by Waffle House and who Waffle House procured background checks; and the second is all people who Waffle House “took adverse employment actions based in whole or in part on information contained [in] background reports.” The Waffle House class action seeks damages, including statutory and punitive damages as allowed by the FCRA.

The plaintiff employees and former employees are represented by Michael J. Pascucci and Joshua H. Eggnatz of Eggnatz, Lopatin & Pascucci LLP, and by Anthony J. Orshansky, Alexandria R. Kachadoorian, and Justin Kachadoorian of CounselOne PC.

The Waffle House Unlawful Background Check Class Action Lawsuit is Alex Holt, et al. v. Waffle House Inc., et al., Case No. 6:17-cv-00693, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division.

UPDATE: On Nov. 8, 2017,  former Waffle House job applicants combined forces to allege the company violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act with its use of background checks. The new complaint consolidates claims brought by 23 plaintiffs in two Waffle House class action lawsuits filed earlier this year.

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One thought on Waffle House Class Action Alleges Unlawful Employee Background Checks

  1. Ashleigh says:

    I am actually a class representative in this class action. Waffle House knows they’re shady!

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