Jonathan Beckerman Discusses Recent FLSA Win With Daily Business Review
Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. (June 8, 2020) - Fort Lauderdale Partner Jonathan A. Beckerman was interviewed by the Daily Business Review (DBR) for an article about Lewis Brisbois’ recent FLSA summary judgment and class decertification win on behalf of an international restaurant chain. This victory, first announced on June 4, resulted from the teamwork of the firm’s Fort Lauderdale and Atlanta offices.
As the DBR article describes, the lead plaintiff in the underlying matter was a server at our client’s restaurant. She sued our client, claiming that she was entitled to unpaid wages plus overtime under the FLSA. Significantly, she contended that an 18% service charge, which was included on all customers’ dinner bills, constituted a tip that our client should have paid in addition to the minimum hourly wage and overtime.
We filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that in accordance with the Retail Sales Exemption under the FLSA, our client distributed the service charge to employees as their sole compensation and that the workers were not entitled to minimum wage or overtime. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida agreed and granted summary judgment in favor of our client.
Mr. Beckerman, who is a member of Lewis Brisbois’ Labor and Employment Practice, told DBR that discovery in this matter was particularly challenging because the client operated several locations worldwide. As such, because class members could have included employees from various countries, our client received extensive discovery requests.
“We were getting overwhelmed with the amount of paper documents that these guys were just trying to throw at us to make facts and issues that didn’t exist,” Mr. Beckerman explained. “Thousands of pages of documents. Any document that was ever generated with the company’s financial picture, they wanted," he added.
With respect to our client’s compensation practices, Mr. Beckerman told DBR, “A lot of the service staff were paid in excess of six figures per year, so they weren’t getting paid an hourly rate and weren’t getting paid overtime.” He added, “They were claiming the service charges were ‘tips,’ which would be a violation of the law if that was the case.” Mr. Beckerman further noted that the service charge distribution method was a “completely legal practice” and that “if they pay workers enough for commission, no minimum wage.”
According to Mr. Beckerman, the restaurant distributed the service charge to the staff based upon a point system, and this distribution constituted all of the compensation that the employees received. “There’s a formula at the end of the night,” he said. For example, the employee who picked up plates and served water might have received one point, while the main server who took orders and served wine would have received three points. Mr. Beckerman elaborated, “They identify how many people were working, the points they were entitled to and distribute the money based on that payment system. So each point entitled them to a percentage of the overall proceeds from the service charges. [The service people] divide up the overall proceeds from the service charges.”
Further details of this case, including the court’s order, are available on DBR's website (subscription may be required).
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Jonathan Beckerman
Partner
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Tampa, FL
Miami, FL
Houston, TX
954.678.4062Attorney Bio
Jonathan.Beckerman@lewisbrisbois.com