Meetz v. Wisconsin Hospitality Group LLC, 1:16-cv-01313

Background

Plaintiff Wayne Meetz, a former Pizza Hut delivery driver, sued Wisconsin Hospitality Group LLC and PH Hospitality Group LLC alleging their per-delivery vehicle reimbursement failed to reasonably approximate drivers’ actual vehicle expenses and thus reduced pay below the federal minimum wage in violation of the FLSA.
Defendants operate 73 Pizza Hut restaurants in Wisconsin and jointly employed ~2,486 drivers since Sept. 30, 2013; most drivers were paid $7.25/hr for in-restaurant work and $5.25/hr for delivery work, plus tips and a per-delivery reimbursement (commonly $1).
Drivers must provide and maintain their own vehicles per a uniform employee handbook and sign acknowledgments accepting responsibility for vehicle costs.
Meetz sought conditional certification of an FLSA collective for all delivery drivers since Sept. 30, 2013; he later narrowed the proposed class to drivers paid $7.25 in-restaurant and $5.25 for delivery. 25 opt-in consents had been filed at the time of the motion.
The court applied the two-step FLSA collective-certification framework and found Meetz made the modest factual showing required at the first (conditional) stage: common policies (wages, reimbursement model, vehicle requirements) and evidence suggesting under-reimbursement.
The court conditionally certified the following collective: all persons who worked as delivery drivers for the named Pizza Hut franchises since Sept. 30, 2013, who received an in-restaurant wage of $7.25/hr and a delivery wage of $5.25/hr; approved a revised notice; appointed counsel as Collective Action Counsel; ordered defendants to produce contact data; and set a 45-day opt-in period.

Issues

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether conditional certification of an FLSA collective is warranted	Meetz argued he and other drivers are similarly situated because of common pay, reimbursement, and vehicle policies and evidence of under-reimbursement	Defendants argued discovery already provided suffices for a higher standard and that variations and evidence support reasonableness of reimbursements	Court granted conditional certification under the first-stage (modest factual showing) standard, finding common policies and evidence of potential under-reimbursement
Scope of the putative collective	Meetz sought all delivery drivers since Sept. 30, 2013; he narrowed class to drivers paid $7.25/$5.25	Defendants pointed to pay exceptions at some locations and urged narrower or no class	Court adopted Meetz’s narrowed definition (drivers paid $7.25 in-restaurant and $5.25 delivery since Sept. 30, 2013)
Whether notice should be court-facilitated and its content	Meetz sought court-authorized notice and his proposed form	Defendants objected to some characterizations, absence of defense language, omission of binding-effect language, and length of notice period	Court approved a revised notice (addressing defense language and binding-effect), shortened notice period to 45 days, and authorized distribution
Use of tips/tip credit as defense to minimum-wage claim	Meetz contended tips and tip-credit cannot cure an employer’s failure to reasonably approximate reimbursements	Defendants argued tips and the tip credit offset any alleged shortfall	Court held defendants cannot rely on tips beyond the authorized tip credit or use tips to excuse alleged under-reimbursement at conditional-certification stage

Key Cases Cited

Hoffmann–La Roche Inc. v. Sperling, 493 U.S. 165 (1989) (district courts may facilitate notice to potential FLSA plaintiffs)
Woods v. N.Y. Life Ins. Co., 686 F.2d 578 (7th Cir. 1982) (distinguishing FLSA opt-in collective actions from Rule 23 class actions)
Thiessen v. Gen. Elec. Capital Corp., 267 F.3d 1095 (10th Cir. 2001) (analytical factors for collective-action certification and individualized defenses)
Tegtmeier v. PJ Iowa, L.C., 208 F. Supp. 3d 1012 (S.D. Iowa 2016) (granting conditional certification in pizza-delivery reimbursement case)
Bellaspica v. PJPA, LLC, 3 F. Supp. 3d 257 (E.D. Pa. 2014) (conditional certification where per-delivery reimbursements alleged to under-compensate drivers)
Perrin v. Papa John’s Int’l, Inc., 114 F. Supp. 3d 707 (E.D. Mo. 2015) (employer must give advance notice to claim a tip credit)
Wass v. NPC Int’l, Inc., 688 F. Supp. 2d 1282 (D. Kan. 2010) (analysis of reimbursement approximation and certification issues)