Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Omaha Steve

(99,078 posts)
Tue Jun 9, 2015, 06:47 PM Jun 2015

Applebee’s Is Trying To Limit Workers’ Ability to Sue the Company When Their Wages Are Stolen







Class action lawsuits are often the only way non-union workers can get the money owed to them by cheating bosses. (Anthony92931 / Wikimedia Commons)

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/18031/applebees_workers_wage_theft

BY BRUCE VAIL TUESDAY, JUN 9, 2015, 12:17 PM

Workers in the restaurant industry are routinely the victims of wage theft. For workers without a union, suing the company is one of the few ways to recover those wages. But a legal fight led by the restaurant chain Applebee’s against the National Labor Relations Board is aiming to further limit workers’ ability to sue the company over disputes on the job.

The Rose Group, a Pennsylvania-based franchise operator of 56 Applebee’s restaurants in several states, is fighting a recent ruling by a labor board judge that the company violated the rights of its workers by forcing them to sign agreements not to sue, but instead to settle disputes in private arbitration. In an April 22 decision, Administrative Law Judge Susan A. Flynn found that Rose Group had engaged in an illegal unfair labor practice by forcing workers to sign a “Dispute Resolution Program and Agreement” that restricts their rights to join class action lawsuits against Applebee’s.

Rose Group attorney Thomas Lewis tells In These Times he is challenging the ruling before the full NLRB and, if he loses there, will take the case on to federal court. “We’re confident the court will support us” against the NLRB, he says.

The ability of employees to file such suits is far from an obscure legal issue, according to Catherine Ruckelshaus, Senior Attorney of the National Employment Law Project. Wage theft violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act are rife in the franchise restaurant industry, she says, and class action lawsuits are often the only way non-union workers can get the money owed to them by cheating bosses.

FULL story at link.


BRUCE VAIL

Bruce Vail is a Baltimore-based freelance writer with decades of experience covering labor and business stories for newspapers, magazines and new media. He was a reporter for Bloomberg BNA's Daily Labor Report, covering collective bargaining issues in a wide range of industries, and a maritime industry reporter and editor for the Journal of Commerce, serving both in the newspaper's New York City headquarters and in the Washington, D.C. bureau.
4 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Applebee’s Is Trying To Limit Workers’ Ability to Sue the Company When Their Wages Are Stolen (Original Post) Omaha Steve Jun 2015 OP
No more Apple-bee's for us. nt ladjf Jun 2015 #1
I think I stepped in it once. ChairmanAgnostic Jun 2015 #2
I'm pretty certain Aerows Jun 2015 #3
Won't eat at Applebees. Thanks, OmahaSteve. kcr Jun 2015 #4
 

Aerows

(39,961 posts)
3. I'm pretty certain
Tue Jun 9, 2015, 06:56 PM
Jun 2015

that I've eaten TV dinners that are of better quality than what Applebee's serves.

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Applebee’s Is Trying To L...