Burger chain assistant managers spent more time taking orders than directing employees
Earlier this year, the award-winning fast food chain Five Guys Burgers was also recognized as a potential Fair Labor Standards Act violator, according to an announcement from employment law firm Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik. The group is behind a lawsuit that's still pending in the San Diego County Superior Court, which alleges that restaurant assistant managers were misclassified and denied overtime pay for their extra employee attendance.
The suit claims that because assistant managers' regular duties more often included manual labor such as slicing vegetables for prep work, taking customers' orders and processing inventories than exercising judgment, they were not exempt from the FLSA as executives.
To qualify for an exemption from overtime pay as an executive, employees must be paid on a salary basis of at least $455 per hour, direct the work of two or more employees and manage the business on a regular basis. If their job duties do not regularly require them to exercise judgment, they may not be considered executives.
"In recent years, an influx of California restaurant and retail class action lawsuits have been filed against restaurant chains and retail stores. If managers and assistant managers are misclassified as exempt, they may be owed overtime back pay," said the firm's founding partner Norman Blumenthal.
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