Delivery Workers at Papa John’s Sue For $2 Million in Unpaid Wages

  Five Papa John’s locations in New York have been accused of failing to pay its delivery workers the minimum wage, shaving hours from their pay, and requiring them to pay for bicycles and safety equipment used to do their jobs. The lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman seeks to recover $2 million in damages for more than 400 delivery workers who were underpaid. The lawsuit is the result of lengthy investigation by the Attorney General’s Labor Bureau that uncovered a multitude of wage violations by Papa Johns that included paying its delivery workers $5.00 an hour rather than the minimum wage of $7.25 at the time, shaving work hours by rounding down, improperly calculating overtime pay, requiring delivery workers to purchase bikes, helmets, locks, and chains at a cost of $500.00 a year, failing to pay spread of hours pay which is an additional hours of pay required when an employee worked more than 10 hours in a day, and not compensating for “call-in pay” which requires compensation for being called into work and then being sent home early. In a press release on the filing of the lawsuit, Attorney General Schneiderman stated, “Nobody who works 40 hours a week should have to live in poverty.” He continued, “Like every other business in New York, fast-food employers must follow the law. My office will combat wage theft whenever and wherever we see it in order to protect the rights of hardworking New Yorkers, including pizza delivery workers and others who toil at fast-food restaurants.”