Former employees to get more than $100K in settlement with State College restaurant
Former delivery drivers of local eatery Wings Over Happy Valley will receive a $106,338 settlement nearly six years after a class-action lawsuit was first filed in federal court.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court, Middle District of Pennsylvania, in May 2017, alleged that wages were taken from the plaintiffs via an “illegal, illegitimate, unlawful, and unapproved, ‘tipping pool.’” The claim used the Fair Labor Standards Act, Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act and Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Law, asking for wages and overtime.
In July 2017, the defendants, Wings Over Happy Valley and former restaurant manager Steven Moreira, filed a counterclaim, also in the U.S. District Court, Middle District of Pennsylvania, alleging that the tip pool was voluntary.
According to the settlement agreement filed Thursday, the wing shop and Moreira have continued to deny any wrongdoing. Their attorney, Philip Miles of McQuaid Blasko Law Offices, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The former delivery drivers maintained throughout the case that they were entitled to all of their tips individually, not via a “tipping pool.” They also claimed, in a retort to the defense filed in August 2017, that the pool gave 8% of tips to the kitchen staff — not the drivers who earned the tips.
“The plaintiffs are, of course, happy with the results,” the plaintiff’s lawyer, David Gaines, told the Centre Daily Times.
The suit also represented up to 50 delivery drivers employed by Wings Over Happy Valley in the three years before the suit was filed, although only the 11 named plaintiffs who joined the case will receive payouts from the settlement. The total payments — with wages and liquidated damages — range from $878 to $15,696 for each former delivery driver.
