The popular pizza chain, Domino’s, is currently facing a wage and hour lawsuit due to allegations that they failed to pay appropriate wages. The minimum wage lawsuit argues that the chain’s actions were illegal and caused Domino’s delivery drivers to be underpaid.
According to the plaintiff, drivers can only make minimum wage or above when they are regularly working on the delivery aspect of the job. When they are given other tasks or required to follow company policy in terms of what they give back for each delivery made, they cannot achieve legally required minimum wage.
Claims in Domino’s Minimum Wage Lawsuit Involve How Drivers Are Put to Work
A former delivery driver filed a minimum wage lawsuit against two Illinois franchisees and Domino’s Pizza. The driver’s goal is to create classes of employees and collectives who work at two multi-store Illinois franchises and whose uniforms, untipped in-store work, and car costs kept their pay well under what would be legal levels. Drivers who work for Domino’s have to pay their own insurance, car maintenance, gas costs, and uniforms, alleges the lawsuit. Furthermore, they are only reimbursed approximately $1.00 for every five to seven mile delivery made for the company, even though the actual costs associated with that delivery are much higher, according to the plaintiff in the minimum wage lawsuit.
Ultimately, the plaintiff argues that this translates to a pay that is less than minimum wage. According to the plaintiff who filed the minimum wage lawsuit, the IRS 2017 business mileage reimbursement rate was used to determine that plaintiff had to regularly kick back to the defendants so much per hour, that it decreased her hourly earnings below minimum wage, because the reimbursement rate was a bit smaller for one of the locations and the delivery radius was a bit larger, a higher amount was being kicked back to the defendants every single hour.
According to the minimum wage lawsuit, Domino’s has the responsibility to curtail the patterns, practices and unlawful policies that make delivery drivers earn less than minimum wage.
Since July 2009, the federal minimum wage has been $7.25 per hour. However, minimum wage requirements are higher in Illinois where the lawsuit was filed. Due to the increase in online ordering that has made in-store employees less necessary, Domino’s encourages franchisees to hire drivers who can manage in-store tasks when no deliveries are required. However, according to the minimum wage lawsuit, the plaintiff in that particular case spent up to one third of her time inside the restaurants working in an untipped capacity that pushed her hourly wage lower than the mandated minimum wage. Two separate collectives may be established under the Fair Labor Standards Act if the plaintiff is successful.
If you or someone you know has been affected by illegal practices that violate minimum wage laws, you may be entitled to recover compensation with the help of an experienced lawyer. The attorneys at Bradley/Grombacher are currently investigating claims of wage and hour violations.
Note: Bradley/Grombacher is not representing the plaintiff in this lawsuit.
