Lawsuit Claims Hardee’s, Carl’s Jr. Assistant Managers Owed Unpaid Overtime Wages

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A proposed collective action out of Colorado claims assistant managers at over 300 Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. restaurants have been misclassified as non-exempt from receiving overtime wages.

According to the 19-page lawsuit, defendants Capstone Restaurant Group, LLC and Summit Restaurant Holdings, LLC, operate approximately 300 franchised Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. restaurants across 14 states. The lawsuit argues that it is a “centralized, company-wide policy, pattern and/or practice” across all of the defendants’ restaurants to classify assistant managers as exempt from receiving time-and-a-half overtime wages for hours worked over 40 each week.

According to the plaintiff, who worked at a Hardee’s restaurant in Calhoun, Georgia between May 2018 and March 2019, assistant managers had no “true management functions” and were instead responsible for performing essentially the same tasks as non-exempt employees, including operating the cash register, serving customers, preparing food, working the drive-thru, stocking, counting inventory, and cleaning.

The lawsuit claims the defendants intentionally underbudgeted for labor costs at their restaurants and required assistant managers to perform the extra tasks that would normally be covered by true non-exempt employees in order to save money. The restaurant operators’ “willful or reckless failure” to properly classify assistant managers as non-exempt employees entitled to time-and-a-half wages has caused workers such as the plaintiff to regularly put in between 50 to 60 hours per week without receiving proper overtime pay, the case argues.

The plaintiff seeks to represent anyone who worked for the defendants as an assistant manager or similar salaried job position in the U.S. “during the relevant time period.”