Connecticut Employment Lawyer & Attorney : Daniel Schwartz : Stamford, Hartford New Haven, CT

A few weeks ago, I posted on a decision by the Connecticut Supreme Court that ruled that an order denying class certification is not an appealable final judgment. I said back then that the case, Palmer v. Friendly Ice Cream Corporation, gives employers and other defendants in class actions, "an important arrow in their quiver of defending against class action cases."

This week,the Hartford Business Journal discussed the case in some detail with some good information about the underlying claims raised by the wait staff. 

The dispute between the food servers and restaurants hinges on the differences in the hourly wages paid to waiters and other non-wait staff. Restaurants are allowed to pay waiters below minimum wage levels, reducing wait staff pay by a 29.4 percent “tip credit,” which is based on the assumption that waiters are expected to earn much of their income from tips.

Food servers claim that their wallets take a hit when employers assign them tasks that don’t include waiting tables, such as brewing coffee, rolling napkins or cleaning restrooms.
For that reason, servers employed by T. G. I. Friday’s and Friendly’s want to be paid for the extra tasks they perform while on the job, so they have been working together to form class-action groups to fight restaurants.

The reporter from the story happened to call me for my views on the case, which I was happy to share with her. You can check out my quotes from the story here.  

Without sounding like I'm trying to fawn over them, the HBJ really is an under-appreciated publication that fills a good niche on business news in the state.  If you aren't looking at their site, you are really missing out on some great little nuggets about Connecticut business.

The case also highlights the importance of following wage rules carefully. The application of a "tip credit" isn't exactly the easiest formula for employers to apply in practice. Employers who may pay under minimum wage for one reason or another should consider themselves targets for potential claims and should ensure that they are in full compliance with the wage and hour laws.

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The Connecticut Supreme Court, in a decision released today, ruled today that an order denying class certification is not an appealable final judgment.  The case, Palmer v. Friendly Ice Cream Corporation, gives employers and other defendants in class actions, an important arrow in their quiver of defending against class action cases. 

In Palmer, thirty-seven waiters or waitresses employed by Friendly's, sought certification as a class to pursue their claims that their employer had ‘‘failed to pay servers the hourly, minimum wage mandated by General Statutes § 31-60 because the defendant unlawfully deducted ‘tip credits’
from servers’ wages’’ for work that was ‘‘non-service’’ in nature. The potential class included ‘‘all current or former servers’’ at the defendant’s forty-eight restaurants in Connecticut ‘‘against whose wages tip credits were subtracted.’’

 According to the Court:

The plaintiffs’ complaint arose from the defendant’s alleged violation of § 31-62-E4 of the Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies, which governs the payment
of minimum wage for ‘‘[d]iversified employment within the restaurant industry . . . .’ The complaint
alleges that the defendant ‘‘failed to definitely segregate all of the time spent performing ‘non-service’ duties and nevertheless took a ‘tip credit’ with respect to most of the hours worked by [the plaintiffs] and the class members and failed to compensate them at the required full minimum wage for their entire shift.’

The Superior Court denied certification of the class and the Appellate Court found that such a ruling was non-appealable -- a decision affirmed by the Connecticut Supreme Court.

I'll look at the underlying wage issue another day, but for now, the Supreme Court's decision will be applicable in all sorts of employment-type class actions filed in state court. 

For employers, plaintiffs will not be able to use the threat of an immediate appeal for settlement purposes, while the employers will also have an extra incentive for defeating class certification. If that decision cannot be appealed until much later (including a verdict), much of the "value" of the class action will be diminished.

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