Kentucky Employment Lawyer Blog

Once again, Darden Restaurants is in the news as employees allege that they are not being paid fairly. Darden Restaurants is a huge company, best known for its Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants that are located in Kentucky, Indiana, and throughout the United States.

Only two plaintiffs have been named in the unfair pay lawsuit, one in Florida and one in Virginia. However, the attorney who filed the lawsuit sees it becoming a class action lawsuit that could potentially cover thousands of previous and current Darden employees that were employed by the company anytime between 2009 and 2012. The unfair wages lawsuit was filed in Florida, where Darden is headquartered.

The lawsuit is based on the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). FLSA was passed in 1938 and established minimum wage and the 40-hour workweek. It also stated that employees were entitled to time-and-a-half for every hour they worked over 40 hours. FSLA also states that tipped employees are allowed to keep their tips and they will not become the property of the employer. A tipped employee may be required to put their tips in a "tip pool." The tips in the pool are then shared among the employees that regularly receive tips as part of their compensation. An amendment to the Act in 1946 stated that an employee should be paid for any time spent doing work specifically for the employer, even if it was not during the employee's scheduled shift or regular work hours. Another amendment relevant to this case occurred in 1996. Up until this time, employees who received tips regularly were paid 50% of the current minimum wage. But in 1996, the tipped employee's hourly rate was frozen at $2.13 per hour by the federal government.

Continue reading "Employment Lawsuit against Restaurant Chain Claims Employees Were Underpaid" »

An Ohio company that owns Panera Bread franchises in several states, including Kentucky, has settled a race discrimination lawsuit involving an ex-employee in Pennsylvania. The settlement will cost the company at least $76,000, possible more if additional employees come forth to say they experienced discrimination too.

The employment discrimination lawsuit claimed that the ex-employee, who is African-American, was only allowed to work in the kitchen at the restaurant, per the owner of the franchise. He was not allowed to serve customers, run the register or seek a management position because he was not to be seen by anyone. As a result, he was denied any chance of being promoted, even though he worked at the restaurant from November 2009 through August 2011. He finally left because of the alleged unfair treatment.

His lawsuit was not the first filed against the franchisee. A white manager who had been fired at the same restaurant supposedly over medical leave violations filed a lawsuit claiming he had been wrongfully terminated because he refused to stop having an African-American man run the cash register. According to the suit, a district manager said the franchisee would "(expletive) if he got a look at that." The employee that was being allowed to run the register is the one who filed the above lawsuit in January 2012.

The African-American employee will receive approximately $10,000 from the settlement. In addition to paying damages and attorneys' fees, the franchisee was also ordered by the judge to place a notice in local newspapers in every state he has a restaurant, notifying other employees of the settlement in case they were discriminated against as well. They will have the opportunity to join the lawsuit and receive 70 cents per hour for every hour they worked after their first year. This amount represents the extra money they could have earned if they had been given the chance to be promoted after their first year of employment. One attorney estimates that 200-300 current and former employees that were employed by the franchisee between January 2008 and January 2012 may be entitled to this compensation.

Continue reading "Franchisee of Restaurants in Kentucky Settles Race Discrimination Lawsuit" »

In two separate cases, a former Louisville, Kentucky public works director has been accused of sexual discrimination and sexual harassment. The director resigned at the end of August 2012. Although he denies his departure was in connection with any of the allegations, it certainly seems to be the case.

Sexual discrimination is illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This portion of the act prohibits employers and supervisors from treating employees differently because of their race, religion, ethnicity, or gender. Employees cannot be turned down for employment, denied promotions, paid less, terminated, or otherwise treated unfairly because of any of these factors. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces this portion of the act by determining if an employee has a valid claim and contacting the company. If the company refuses to resolve the issue, a lawsuit will most likely be filed.

In the Kentucky sexual discrimination case, a public works employee claimed she was discriminated against because she was female. The lawsuit states she was denied a promotion for 18 months and was only given the job after complaints of potential sexual discrimination were made to the mayor. She was finally awarded the position in June 2012, but allegedly at a lower salary than her male predecessors.

According to the EEOC, "Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination that violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964." Sexual harassment involves actions by a supervisor or co-worker that makes an employee uncomfortable. Unwanted sexual advances, inappropriate touching, and the distribution of pictures, cartoons, or jokes of a sexual nature are just a few examples of sexual harassment. A one-time incident involving something of a mildly sexual nature is generally not enough to constitute harassment; it must be either frequent or serious enough to cause a hostile work environment.

In the Kentucky sexual harassment complaint against the public works director, he allegedly entered the employee's cubicle on more than one occasion and hugged and kissed her without her consent. Non-consensual touching like this is quite serious, and the fact that it happened more than once makes it even worse.

Continue reading "Possible Sexual Harassment and Discrimination in Louisville, Kentucky Public Works Department" »