A Waffle House franchisee recently was hit with a $2.9 million verdict in a class action suit filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The court held that the franchisee failed to pay overtime to shift managers it erroneously had classified as "exempt." The managers routinely performed work such as waiting on tables and operating the grills at the restaurants.
If $2.9 million sounds like a lot of money for a mere FLSA violation, consider that it resulted from what has become a recent trend: the increased use of class actions in the FLSA context.
Across the country in recent years, the plaintiff's bar has come to view the FLSA class action as one of its most potent weapons, and for good reason.
