Louisiana IHOP owners face claims they ask for 'off the clock' work, more labor violations

A group of current and former workers that filed suit against the owners of several International House of Pancakes franchises in Louisiana and Mississippi for alleged labor law abuses has expanded to more than 450 people with a new court filing.

The latest lawsuit, filed last Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, alleges that several IHOP franchises owned by Nadia and Mohammad Esmail systematically violated the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The group of current and former servers and other employees allege that they were denied overtime pay when they worked more than 40 hours a week, with managers regularly asking them to work "off the clock" in order to pay standard wages rather than time-and-a-half as the law requires.

The lawsuit also alleges that the IHOP franchise owners regularly abused the "tip credit" provision in the Fair Labor Standards Act by inflating the amount of tips made in order to pay workers less than the federally-mandated minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

Read more: https://www.nola.com/news/business/article_924b33b6-9c47-11e9-8868-b70eae27aba7.html