Papa’s Just Got Bagged
March 16, 2015 by Teague Paterson
To paraphrase the godfather of soul, Papa John’s must pay the cost to be the boss. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman just got a $2.1 million judgment against a New York Papa John’s franchise owner. This comes on the heels of a similar judgment against another Papa John’s franchisee for $800,000. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is cracking down on the franchise restaurant industry’s flagrant wage theft violations.
These Papa John’s cases illustrate how employers skirt New York’s labor law in ways that may not be obvious to workers. For example, these cases involved schemes by Papa John’s franchisees to pay pizza deliverers as tipped workers (paying them the lower tipped worker minimum wage), illegal rounding of hours worked (rounding up at the start of the shift and down at the end of the shift), and making delivery employees pay for the cost of maintaining their bicycles—all illegal practices that add up to millions in unpaid wages.
New York’s attorney general has now called on “all fast food franchisors, including Papa John’s, to take steps necessary to ensure that their workers—the backbone of their business—are treated fairly and paid the wages the law requires.” We agree, but if the franchisors and restaurant owners don’t heed this call, we at Beeson, Tayer & Bodine are ready to stand up for you. New York wage and hour laws are complicated, but if it smells funky, it is funky. We can help, call us.
The reader may also find these articles interesting:
http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2015/02/09/papa-johns-ordered-pay-almost-800000-wage-theft-case/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/05/papa-johns-franchise-ord_n_6811852.html
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