Bojangles' Assistant Managers Sue for Overtime

Two assistant managers who worked at a North Carolina Bojangles' restaurant are suing the famous southern food chain for failing to pay them overtime.  The assistant managers argue that they were not actually managers and spent most of their time cleaning, taking orders, serving customers, and preparing, cooking, and packaging food.  Although they worked approximately fifty hours per week, Bojangles' always paid the assistant managers the same set salary every week. The law requires employers to pay employees overtime pay for hours worked over forty per week.  Overtime pay is equal to one and one-half (1.5) times an employee’s regular hourly rate of pay.  Employers can get in trouble with the law when they pay employees on a fixed weekly salary, because it does not cover overtime pay. If several requirements are met, managers fall under an exception to the law and do not have to be paid overtime.  To fall under the exception, a restaurant “manager” must perform certain duties, such as directing the work of other employees, setting employees’ pay rates and work schedules, hiring and firing employees, and recommending the promotion or demotion of employees.  Managers should also have the power to act on behalf of the restaurant by, for example, ordering food on its behalf.  An employee who does not perform these duties and is simply called a “manager” or “assistant manager” does not fall under the exemption and must be paid overtime.  This is known as “misclassification.” The Bojangles' assistant managers claim that they were misclassified because they were paid a fixed weekly salary even though they did not perform the work duties of true managers.  Accordingly, they argue that Bojangles' owes them and 400 other assistant managers unpaid overtime wages.  The lawsuit is pending in federal court in North Carolina.