KENNETH A. MARRA, District Judge.
This cause is before the Court upon Defendant Josef's Table's ("Defendant") Amended Motion to Dismiss Plaintiff's Amended Complaint (DE 58). The motions are fully briefed and ripe for review. The Court has carefully considered the motions and is otherwise fully advised in the premises.
On July 26, 2013, the Court granted Plaintiff, who is proceeding
Plaintiff now brings this Amended Complaint. (DE 37.) According to those allegations, Plaintiff worked for Defendant as a server and tipped employee who was engaged in the production of goods for commerce. (Am. Compl. ¶ 2.) Plaintiff engaged in the production of goods in commerce selling food and beverages to customers of Defendant. He collected payment for goods and services using interstate credit card transactions processed through Defendant's point of sale system and received tips from those interstate credit card transactions. (Am. Compl. ¶ 6.) Plaintiff and class members are "individually covered employees within the meaning of FLSA." (Am. Compl. ¶ 8.)
Defendant is "engaged in interstate commerce." Defendant purchases and resells food and beverage products imported from other states and countries. Defendant also conducts interstate credit card transactions for payment of goods and services. Defendant has an annual volume of sales in excess of $500,000 and is covered under enterprise coverage. (Am. Compl. ¶ 10.)
Defendant required Plaintiff and other class members to perform non-tipped general preparation and/or maintenance as incidental duties in excess of 20% of their time at work and they were not paid at least the full hourly minimum wage while performing such duties. (Am. Compl. ¶ 34.) Non-tipped duties that were incidental to their tipped occupation in excess of 20% of their work week included setting tables, polishing silverware, setting up service areas, polishing glasses, preparing ice buckets, sorting silverware and stocking service supplies. (Am. Compl. ¶ 35.) Non-tipped duties that were not incidental to their tipped occupations included cleaning woodwork and kitchen doors, stocking paper supplies in the bathroom, checking bathroom cleanliness, organizing outdoor storage, sweeping floors, applying sound reducing padding to tables, dusting and changing light bulbs in light fixtures, cleaning chair legs, redistributing and reorganizing chairs, distributing linen deliveries, organizing linen closets, moving liquor and wine deliveries, organizing and cleaning the wine room, dusting wine bottles and taking menu and wine knowledge tests. (Am. Compl. ¶ 37.) Tipped employees would be scheduled as early as 2:30 p.m. and spend multiple hours standinLg until customers arrived and were often sent home without any tip producing opportunities. Lunch shifts were often spent without any tip producing opportunities during the entire shift. (Am. Compl. ¶ 38.) Total non-tip producing hours are estimated to be 40% of work week. (Am. Compl. ¶ 39.)
Defendant never notified tip employees of the specific requirements of the tip pool. (Am. Compl. ¶ 46.) Food runners and server assistants were not paid the tips they earned. They earned tips from servers and customers they individually assisted, but were required to share those tips with other members of the tip pool who did not earn those tips. Defendant pooled all money from server assistants and food runners and split it equally among all server assistants and food runners. (Am. Compl. ¶ 47.) Ineligible employees also participated in the tip pool (Am. Compl. ¶ 48.)
At the end of the shift, tipped employees owed Defendant money for customer checks paid in cash. The cash amounts due to the restaurant were rounded up and the servers were required to pay a portion of their cash tips to supplement the rounded off totals, thus allowing Defendant to keep a portion of the employees' tips. If no cash tip was received, the server had to pay the rounding out amount regardless. (Am. Compl. ¶ 49.) Plaintiff was not paid the tips that were charged, as opposed to those paid in cash, until the regular scheduled pay day as opposed to the day earned. (Am. Compl. ¶ 50.)
Defendant supplied Plaintiff with one uniform but also required Plaintiff to purchase specific uniforms. (Am. Compl. ¶ ¶ 54-55.) The purchase and maintenance of the uniforms caused Plaintiff to incur expenses which reduced pay below minimum wage. (Am. Compl. ¶ 57.)
Plaintiff submitted a written wage complaint on April 20, 2012 and, following a meeting, Defendant eliminated three out of his four previously scheduled work shifts. (Am. Compl. ¶ ¶ 59-60.) Plaintiff resigned and his final paycheck was held in demand for return of the uniform. (Am. Compl. ¶ ¶ 62, 64.)
Defendant now moves to dismiss the Amended Complaint. Defendant argues the Amended Complaint is a shotgun pleading and that it fails to allege properly either enterprise or individual coverage under the FLSA. Defendant also argues that the counts regarding the alleged tip pool violations and the uniform expenses fail to state a claim. Lastly, Defendant contends the retaliation claim fails to state a claim.
Rule 8(a)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure requires "a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief." Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2). The Supreme Court has held that "[w]hile a complaint attacked by a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss does not need detailed factual allegations, a plaintiff's obligation to provide the `grounds' of his `entitlement to relief' requires more than labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do. Factual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level."
"To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face."
The Court begins by noting that the Amended Complaint does not constitute a shotgun pleading. Indeed, in those cases, it is "virtually impossible to know which allegations of fact are intended to support which claim(s) for relief."
The overtime provisions of the FLSA cover enterprises engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce as well as employees who themselves are either engaged in commerce or in production of goods for commerce.
Here, Plaintiff has properly pled enterprise coverage by alleging Defendant has an annual gross sales volume of over $500,000. Defendant complains, however, that the Amended Complaint does not state how many employees work for Defendant. While Defendant is correct that the Amended Complaint does not specifically state that there are more than two employees, the Amended Complaint does indicate that there are numerous servers, food runners and server assistants working in the restaurant. Thus, the Court finds that enterprise coverage is properly alleged.
With respect to individual coverage, Plaintiff alleges that he sold food and beverages to Defendant's customers. Defendant contends that serving and selling food is insufficient to satisfy the individual coverage test unless Plaintiff alleges that the goods continued to move in interstate commerce. The Court agrees that "handling goods . . . that have previously traveled in interstate commerce does not constitute engaging in interstate commerce."
Plaintiff also alleges that he personally engaged in interstate credit card transactions to collect payment of goods and services. He does not allege that he used credit cards to transact business in interstate commerce. Defendant points to authority that processing credit card transactions for goods purchased locally does not satisfy the requirement of individual coverage.
Next, the Court rejects Defendant's argument that Plaintiff's allegation that his non-tipped duties exceeded 20% of his time is insufficient to state a cause of action. In making this argument, Defendant claims that the tasks identified in the Amended Complaint fall within "core" tasks of Plaintiff's tipped occupation and therefore the Amended Complaint does not, as a matter of law, state a claim for a violation of the tip credit. The Court finds that, at the motion to dismiss stage, the Court cannot make this determination as it requires the benefit of a factual record. Indeed, the case Defendant relies heavily upon arises at the summary judgment stage and is therefore inapposite.
Defendant also seeks dismissal of the claim based on uniform expenses. In doing so, Defendant relies upon
Lastly, the Court addresses the claim for retaliation. "A prima facie case of FLSA retaliation requires a demonstration by the plaintiff of the following: (1) he engaged in activity protected under the act; (2) he subsequently suffered adverse action by the employer; and (3) a causal connection existed between the employee's activity and the adverse action."
Accordingly, it is hereby