{"id":614,"date":"2014-07-14T22:21:53","date_gmt":"2014-07-14T22:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fslawfirm.com\/blog\/?p=614"},"modified":"2014-07-14T22:21:53","modified_gmt":"2014-07-14T22:21:53","slug":"pennsylvania-court-holds-employees-must-direct-customer-interaction-participate-tip-pool-fair-labor-standards-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fslawfirm.com\/blog\/2014\/07\/pennsylvania-court-holds-employees-must-direct-customer-interaction-participate-tip-pool-fair-labor-standards-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Court Holds Employees Must Have Direct Customer Interaction to Participate in a Tip Pool under the Fair Labor Standards Act"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a case of first impression in the Third Circuit, a Middle District of Pennsylvania Court held that expediters at the Red Robin restaurant chain did not fall within the definition of \u201ctipped employees\u201d under the Fair Labor Standards Act (\u201cFLSA\u201d). <i>Ford v. Lehigh Valley Restaurant Group, Inc.<\/i>, No. 14-cv-227. \u00a0The case revolves around the interpretation of 29 U.S.C. \u00a7 203(m), which allows \u201cthe pooling of tips among employees who customarily and regularly receive tips.\u201d\u00a0 Defendant Red Robin instituted a policy of requiring servers to contribute 3% of their gross sales to a tip pool. These proceeds were then distributed to restaurant bartenders, expediters and busboys. Plaintiffs claimed that the expediters should have been excluded from this pool as they were not \u201ctipped employees\u201d under the FLSA as they predominately worked in the kitchen and rarely interacted with customers.<\/p>\n<p>Defendant asserted that the phrase \u201ccustomarily and regularly receive tips\u201d means that in order to be considered a \u201ctipped employee\u201d, one must receive tips at a \u201cfrequency which must be greater than occasional, but which may be less than constant.\u201d Drawing on case law from other Circuits and the plain meaning of section 203(m), the Court rejected this argument holding that the statute\u2019s plain meaning requires that employees who \u201ccustomarily and regularly receive tips\u201d have more than <i>de minimis<\/i> direct customer interaction.<\/p>\n<p>The court held that the determination whether a worker falls within the definition of \u201ctipped employee\u201d is a fact intensive inquiry focusing on an employee\u2019s level of direct customer interaction. Accordingly, the Court denied Defendant\u2019s Motion to Dismiss.\u00a0 The NY Employment Lawyers at Fitapelli &amp; Schaffer frequently represent workers in tip pooling cases. Please contact us at (212)300-0375 or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fslawfirm.com\">www.fslawfirm.com<\/a> for a free consultation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a case of first impression in the Third Circuit, a Middle District of Pennsylvania Court held that expediters at the Red Robin restaurant chain did not fall within the definition of \u201ctipped employees\u201d under the Fair Labor Standards Act (\u201cFLSA\u201d). Ford v. Lehigh Valley Restaurant Group, Inc., No. 14-cv-227. \u00a0The case revolves around the interpretation of 29 U.S.C. \u00a7 203(m), which allows \u201cthe pooling of tips among employees who customarily and regularly receive tips.\u201d\u00a0 Defendant Red Robin instituted a &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23,1,22,43,25,24,26,34,29,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-class-action","category-employment-law","category-flsa-2","category-food","category-gratuities","category-minimum-wage-2","category-tips","category-unpaid-wages-2","category-waiter","category-waitress"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pennsylvania Court Holds Employees Must Have Direct Customer Interaction to Participate in a Tip Pool under the Fair Labor Standards Act - New York Employment Lawyer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fslawfirm.com\/blog\/2014\/07\/pennsylvania-court-holds-employees-must-direct-customer-interaction-participate-tip-pool-fair-labor-standards-act\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pennsylvania Court Holds Employees Must Have Direct Customer Interaction to Participate in a Tip Pool under the Fair Labor Standards Act - New York Employment Lawyer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a case of first impression in the Third Circuit, a Middle District of Pennsylvania Court held that expediters at the Red Robin restaurant chain did not fall within the definition of \u201ctipped employees\u201d under the Fair Labor Standards Act (\u201cFLSA\u201d). Ford v. Lehigh Valley Restaurant Group, Inc., No. 14-cv-227. \u00a0The case revolves around the interpretation of 29 U.S.C. \u00a7 203(m), which allows \u201cthe pooling of tips among employees who customarily and regularly receive tips.\u201d\u00a0 Defendant Red Robin instituted a ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fslawfirm.com\/blog\/2014\/07\/pennsylvania-court-holds-employees-must-direct-customer-interaction-participate-tip-pool-fair-labor-standards-act\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"New York Employment Lawyer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FSLawFirm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-14T22:21:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fslawfirm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/FSLaw_Logo_Blue_FB.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"bschaffer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"bschaffer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fslawfirm.com\\\/blog\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/pennsylvania-court-holds-employees-must-direct-customer-interaction-participate-tip-pool-fair-labor-standards-act\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fslawfirm.com\\\/blog\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/pennsylvania-court-holds-employees-must-direct-customer-interaction-participate-tip-pool-fair-labor-standards-act\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"bschaffer\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fslawfirm.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/749a268f980a6cee82fa2f713ef54852\"},\"headline\":\"Pennsylvania Court Holds Employees Must Have Direct Customer Interaction to Participate in a Tip Pool under the Fair Labor Standards Act\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-07-14T22:21:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fslawfirm.com\\\/blog\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/pennsylvania-court-holds-employees-must-direct-customer-interaction-participate-tip-pool-fair-labor-standards-act\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":310,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fslawfirm.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Class Action\",\"Employment Law\",\"FLSA\",\"Food\",\"Gratuities\",\"Minimum Wage\",\"Tips\",\"Unpaid Wages\",\"Waiter\",\"Waitress\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fslawfirm.com\\\/blog\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/pennsylvania-court-holds-employees-must-direct-customer-interaction-participate-tip-pool-fair-labor-standards-act\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fslawfirm.com\\\/blog\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/pennsylvania-court-holds-employees-must-direct-customer-interaction-participate-tip-pool-fair-labor-standards-act\\\/\",\"name\":\"Pennsylvania Court Holds Employees Must Have Direct Customer Interaction to Participate in a Tip Pool under the Fair Labor Standards Act - 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Ford v. 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