Thousands of Pizza Hut delivery drivers get paid less than minimum wage because their employer doesn’t pay their automobile and other job-related expenses, a lawsuit claims.
The suit, originally filed in May in federal court in Kansas City, Kan., and amended last week, was brought against NPC International Inc. of Overland Park, the largest Pizza Hut franchisee in the world. NPC operates 1,161 Pizza Hut restaurants in 28 states, including Missouri and Kansas.
The suit says that delivery drivers, though paid hourly wages roughly equal to applicable minimum wage laws, are not adequately compensated for the actual costs of using their own vehicles to make deliveries.
“The net effect of NPC’s policy and practice, instituted and approved by company managers, is that it willfully fails to pay federal and state minimum wages,” the suit alleges.
NPC officials could not be reached for comment. But the company earlier sought dismissal of the suit on the grounds that the Fair Labor Standards Act, the federal minimum wage law, permits a “reasonable approximation” of expenses incurred. The court has yet to rule on NPC’s motion.
NPC argued that “in the absence of notice of any deficiency, NPC cannot be liable under the FLSA for failing to reimburse ‘actual’ expenses.”
The amended suit also alleges that NPC fails to reimburse drivers for cell phone charges incurred in connection with work. In addition, it seeks damages on behalf of Colorado drivers, who the suit says are not reimbursed for the costs of buying and cleaning their uniforms, causing their wages to fall below the floor imposed by Colorado’s minimum-wage law.
George Hanson, an attorney for the plaintiffs, estimated that the plaintiff class could include up to 20,000 drivers.
Similar lawsuits have been filed recently in Colorado against a different Pizza Hut franchisee, Pizza Hut Inc. and a Papa John’s franchisee. Other suits have been filed against Domino’s Pizza in Minnesota and New York.
As a Pizza Hut driver for the last five years, I have learned one major lesson in life, "You can't argue with the Twilight Zone." The impossible task of pleasing the "pizza crowd" is totally dependent on how many customers are calling at any given time. The job of driver resembles the occupation of professional gambler more than that of a Texas Holdem' competition. Questions abound, like, "How much will I make tonight from tips? Will I be the only driver on duty due to budget cuts at my store? Will more customers be calling than two people can wait on? What if the customer thinks I, the driver, am really getting the 2 dollar "convenience fee" the receipt is charging them as a delivery fee, instead of the ever changing gasoline cost compensation designed by the overly cerebral economics advisory firm Pizza Hut has employed to guide their financial outlays?" After totally burning out three cheap used cars delivering for the Hut during my first two years of work, I started buying a car wth only 28,000 miles on it. I have used my car for nothing else but service to Pizza Hut the last three years. I still owe 4,500 dollars on it and it now has 102,500 miles on it. Fortunately what I owe is still nearly below the Kelly Blue Book trade in value, and I have invested in a "cute Bug", as the customers call it, a Volkswagen, to drive every other week so I only put 14,000 miles a year on each car. I love it when little kids yell, "Hey Pizza Man, give us a pizza." Of course we never carry extra pizzas. Those pizzas aren't cheap. But Pizza Hut is, I'm sorry to say. Too cheap, and sometimes the experience there is inhumanly rushed and disgustingly understaffed. And our store managers are constantly complaining that they can't meet quotas on time limits or budget limits and that their asses are "getting chewed" by "area managers" who catch them between the rock and the hard place of minimum staffing and maximum time management efficiency. The most often heard statement out of your store supervisor is, "How long are you going to take to finish up? I've got to be back here first thing in the morning." And this is heard at midnight while the driver is cleaning the place, doing dishes, taking out the trash and mopping floors. I had to flat out tell them as a driver I will not be in first thing in the morning after closing the store late at night, because it is not safe to be driving after only five hours of sleep. Saturday, July 25th is the first day of work for me at the new minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. However my hours have been cut back to 32 hours a week. So I'll still be making what I used to, $200.00 a week take home, plus tips of about an equal amount. I have to pray that the IRS audits my automobile expenses as a deductible tool of the trade expense, and therefore pay all my car expenses with credit cards, statements of which can be used as proof of expenses. If you declared your tips on the business computer at work, you would have with holdings from your minimum wage salary each payday that would make the job of driver totally useless and unprofitable or even liveable as far as paying rent or bills and leading a normal life. The Fair Labor Act has a clause that states companies do not have to pay the minimum wage to drivers that are getting some other form of compensation along with their pay. As far as the minimum wage at Pizza Hut goes, it is very immature, straight out of the fifties, and only practical because of tips, which would be more if the customers didn't have to pay a "convenience fee". But think of this. I have been told by a waiter at a Pizza Hut restaurant that he doesn't even get the minimum wage at all. He's not driving, he's walking up to the customers. A waiter can't declare that his shoes are a deductible tool of the trade like a driver can with his auto expenses.
Thank you. Have a nice day.