Wage Law

We congratulate Michael Singer and our friends at Cohelan & Khoury, Lorens & Associates and the Law Office of William Turley for getting their meal and rest period class action against Brinker International Inc. (Chili's, Romano's Macaroni Grill, On The Border, etc.) restaurant chain certified. San Diego County Superior Court Judge Patricia A.Y. Cowett certified the class of 63,000 current and former employees. Tracee Lorens was quoted in the Daily Journal last week opining that the case could be worth $250 million. Brinker previously paid $10 million to settle a similar case filed by the California Department of Labor in 2002, but the violations continued. Like our case against TGI Friday's and unlike the Wal-Mart case, this one includes certification of the rest period claims. Brinker, like TGI Friday's has enforced policies which deprive workers of the chance to take paid rest breaks. Next month, the court will rule on the plaintiff's motion for injunctive relief, seeking to force the company to let workers take their meal periods after 5 hours of work.

Judge Cowett has previously issued "advisory opinions" for the purposes of a mediation in that case, indicating that there is a violation for the employer to have employees take their breaks during the first hour, then work more than five hours without a meal period, and that the statute of limitations is four years for claims under Labor Code section 226.7.

As a percentage, very few of these class actions are not settled before the certification hearing. Among the few that did not settle before a certification ruling, there are now two (and they are two of the largest) classes that have been certified as rest period classes.