Red Robin Hit with Former Manager’s Class Action Over Allegedly Unpaid Wages

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Red Robin International, Inc. has been hit with a proposed class action that claims the restaurant chain has failed to pay certain managers proper wages.

The 18-page case, filed on April 27 by a former employee, alleges Red Robin fails to sufficiently staff its nearly 60 California restaurants, such that assistant managers, assistant general managers and kitchen managers must spend most of their days performing “physically demanding non-exempt work.” 

Salaried managers, despite performing essentially the same duties—such as cooking, bussing tables, seating and serving customers, cleaning, and delivering food—as Red Robin’s non-exempt employees, are improperly classified as exempt from California’s overtime provisions and are not provided with proper time-and-a-half overtime wages, the suit says.

Moreover, Red Robin managers often find themselves working through meal and rest breaks without receiving appropriate compensation for their missed breaks, the lawsuit contends.

The plaintiff says he worked for Red Robin from 2013 to April 2021 in the positions of assistant manager, kitchen manager and assistant general manager. According to the suit, the plaintiff and other secondary managers frequently worked more than 40 hours per week performing mostly the same tasks as non-exempt hourly workers as a result of Red Robin’s failure to properly staff its restaurants with non-exempt employees. 

“Red Robin’s business model depends on lean staffing of its restaurants, including by relying on Secondary Managers to spend the majority of their time performing the same duties as non-exempt, hourly-paid workers,” the complaint alleges. “Plaintiff and Class Members consistently spend far less than half of their working time performing managerial and/or exempt duties.”

The lawsuit claims that Red Robin has nevertheless failed to pay secondary managers proper time-and-a-half overtime wages for the hours they worked in excess of 40 each week.

Further, the case alleges that Red Robin’s managers regularly worked more than five hours per shift without being provided with a 30-minute, duty-free meal break or a second meal period when they worked a 10-hour shift. Similarly, the workers were also denied 10-minute rest breaks for every four hours of work, in violation of California labor laws, the suit claims.

Despite Red Robin’s failure to provide required breaks, managers were also not paid for one hour of work at their regular pay rate for each day in which a proper break was not taken, according to the complaint.

The plaintiff looks to represent current and former assistant managers, assistant general managers and kitchen managers who worked for Red Robin in California at any time from April 27, 2018 through the final disposition of the case.

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