TGI Friday’s Settles Wage And Hour Class Action Lawsuit

TGI Friday’s Inc. agreed to settle Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) allegations brought in a wage and hour class action lawsuit. The FLSA lawsuit was brought by 14 plaintiffs who belonged to a Class of TGI Friday’s tipped workers who allege they were not fully compensated in their wages for side work performed during their work shifts.

All 14 TGI Friday’s proposed wage and hour settlements were accepted by the individual plaintiffs and were approved by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres. These individual wage and hour class action settlements range from $2,500 to $82,000, which are to be paid by Carlson Restaurant Inc., TGI Friday’s parent company.

The TGI Friday’s wage and hour settlements come just a few months after Judge Torres’ certification of a nationwide TGI Friday’s wage and hour class action lawsuit, which includes TGI Friday’s servers, bartenders, and hosts who were allegedly not paid minimum wage hours for time spent cleaning the restaurant, restocking items, and prepping food.

In their motion opposing the wage and hour Class certification, TGI Friday’s argued that plaintiffs could not demonstrate that there existed sufficient similarity among the thousands of tipped workers included in the wage and hour Class. However, Judge Torres disagreed, stating the parent company had enough control over TGI Friday’s wage policies to warrant certification.

“This evidence, coupled with the evidence of defendant’s centralized control over TGI Friday’s restaurants nationwide, suffices to meet the minimal burden for conditional certification,” Judge Torres states. She also rejected TGI Friday’s claims that these wage and hour policies were in place to make sure that the chain restaurant did not make FLSA violations, finding that this did not provide grounds to deny Class certification.

When the TGI Friday’s wage and hour Class was certified in January, it was estimated that up to 42,000 TGI Friday’s employees nationwide could be considered potential Class Members in this wage and hour class action lawsuit, making it one of the largest Classes certified in any kind of class action lawsuit against a restaurant chain.

At this point in time, TGI Friday’s parent company has paid out $700,000 to settle wage and hour complaints with at least dozens of workers.

The TGI Friday’s Wage and Hour Class Action Lawsuit is Case No. 1:14-cv-02740, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Federal Labor Standards and California Labor Laws on Unpaid Overtime

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is a federal law that protects employees’ wage and hour rights to ensure workers receive fair wages, are fully compensated for all hours worked, are working in a safe work environment, and are protected from potential exploitation or abuse from employers.

The plaintiffs of this TGI Friday’s wage and hour class action lawsuit allege the restaurant chain uses certain wage policies that cheat tipped workers out of full compensation for all duties performed.

Many employees are joining together to file employment class action lawsuits for alleged wage and hour, unpaid overtime, and misclassification of employee claims.

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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.

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