Santa Clara, CA: Hooters is facing a national employment and unpaid overtime class action lawsuit alleging the restaurant chain deliberately misclassifies its assistant store managers as supervisors to avoid paying them overtime, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
The putative action was filed in Alabama by Jacki Stirewalt, Jaqui Shae Brown and Amber Cox, on behalf of all assistant managers at the restaurant chain's affiliated stores. Collectively, they allege they worked up to 80 hours per week but couldn’t claim for overtime pay because they were classified as managers, meaning they were exempt from overtime pay.
According to the complaint, the term manager was a title only, and plaintiffs did not have many of the responsibilities afforded to salaried managers who are exempt from overtime under the FLSA.
The suit states that the primary duty of the plaintiffs was sales, not managing other employees who they had the ability to hire and fire. When they did create schedules, they were “almost always changed,” the complaint alleges. They interviewed new job applicants, but their recommendations were often ignored by their supervisors, the complaint states.
Further, while the plaintiffs state they were responsible for merchandise, they were not able to control pricing or how goods were displayed.
The plaintiffs assert that Hooters intentionally concealed the status of its assistant managers from both the government and its employees for a decade, and therefore, the statute of limitations should be tolled because of the company’s fraud.
“Defendants have intentionally and repeatedly misrepresented the true status of managerial compensation ... to avoid suspicion and inquiry by employees regarding their entitlement to monies owed to them,” the complaint states. “Plaintiffs, as well as other similarly situated present and former employees, relied upon these misrepresentations by defendants and [were] unable to determine [their] true status under the FLSA by the exercise of reasonable diligence because of those misrepresentations.”
Additionally, the suit states that the named plaintiffs never received reimbursement for their travel costs associated with visiting other stores to check on inventory, and that they picked up duties outside their job description, such as janitorial or kitchen work, without any additional pay.
The suit is seeking to represent current and former assistant managers who worked at a Hooters store within the last three years.
The plaintiffs are seeking uncompensated overtime pay, sales incentives, commissions, bonuses, vacation and sick time, as well as liquidated damages among other things.
The plaintiffs are represented by J. Allen Schreiber and Lauren E. Miles of Burke Harvey LLC. The case is Stirewalt et al. v. Hooters of America LLC et al., case number 2:17-cv-00307, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
