The Fifth Circuit on Thursday affirmed a $1.8 million judgment in favor of 55 Chili's Grill & Bar waiters who alleged in a collective action that they were illegally forced to share their tips with employees who were not entitled to them.  The appeal court rejected all of the arguments put forth by Chili's parent company Brinker International Inc., including that the collective action should have been decertified and that an award of $1.5 million in attorney's fees was excessive.  "We're very pleased," said Rex Burch of Bruckner Burch PLLC, an attorney for the plaintiffs. "I argued the case to the Fifth Circuit in July and I thought the court had a good handle on the proper analysis then."  An attorney for Brinker could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Fair Labor Standards Act suit began in the Southern District of Texas in 2005, alleging that Chili's waiters did not retain all of their tips because they were forced to pool them with tip-ineligible employees called quality assurance workers.  Those workers completed food orders in the kitchen but had minimal interaction with customers. Brinker's policy was that waiters may voluntarily give tips to the quality assurance workers, but the plaintiffs alleged that they were coerced by managers into doing so.  Early in the litigation, more than 3,500 Chili's waiters opted into the case as plaintiffs. However, the district court decertified that collective action, finding the question of coercion was too individualized to be tried in one action.  But the district court certified a smaller collective action of 55 plaintiffs, ruling them to be similarly situated, and the case proceeded to trial.  At trial, 14 members of the class testified that they had been coerced by managers into tipping quality assurance workers.  The jury ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, who were awarded $271,878. They later won approximately $1.5 million in attorneys' fees. (click on link to read full story)