Jason’s Deli Deprived Former Assistant Manager of Proper OT Pay, Lawsuit Alleges

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Deli Management, Inc.—which operates approximately 158 Jason’s Deli restaurants nationally—is facing a proposed collective action alleging the company violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by depriving a former assistant manager of overtime compensation.

The plaintiff worked as an assistant manager at an Atlanta, Georgia Jason’s Deli from May 2016 to December 2017, the suit says. During her tenure, the woman claims she received “one or more paychecks” that did not reflect overtime premiums for hours worked in excess of 40. 

According to the case, until August 2017, the defendant maintained a “company-wide policy” of designating all assistant managers as exempt from overtime provisions of the FLSA, rather than performing a “person-by-person analysis” of each employee’s job duties. 

The suit accuses the company of “willfully failing to provide enough money in its restaurant-level labor budgets for its non-exempt employees to perform their duties and responsibilities, forcing its exempt [assistant managers] to perform additional non-exempt tasks.”

The plaintiff alleges her job duties were primarily manual in nature and included food preparation, cleaning and customer service. As the woman’s duties allegedly “did not include exercising any meaningful independent judgement and discretion,” the complaint argues she was not exempt from overtime pay under the FLSA. Notably, the defendant reportedly reclassified all assistant manager positions as hourly non-exempt employees around August 2017.