The Dallas Hospitality Employment Lawyer Blog

Yesterday, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a district court and found that a woman's trip to Las Vegas with her terminally-ill mother qualified as FMLA leave.   See Ballard v. Chicago Park District , No. 10-C-1740, January 28, 2014.   Plaintiff Beverly Ballard worked for the Chicago Park District and cared for her mother, Sarah, who was receiving hospice care for end-stage congestive heart failure.  During a meeting attended by Beverly, Sarah, and the social worker to discuss Sarah's end-of-life goals, Sarah told her daughter she had always wanted to take a family trip to Las Vegas. With help from a nonprofit agency, the social worker secured funding for the trip, and Beverly and Sarah headed to Vegas for six days of fun-filled, Sin City tourist attractions. During the trip, Beverly continued to provide care to her mother, even finding replacement insulin when a fire at their hotel prevented them from accessing Sarah's medicine.  The Chicago...

Restaurant Opportunities Centers United ("ROC"), with offices in Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington, D.C., identifies itself as a national intermediary that helps initiate Restaurant Opportunities Centers around the country.  According to its website, ROC uses tactics including organizing workers, litigation, and public pressure to achieve its version of "Workplace Justice."   ROC contends its mission includes: (1) raising the minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $10.10 per hour over the next three years, and the tipped minimum wage from $2.13 to 70% of the regular minimum wage; (2) guaranteeing workers a minimum number of paid sick days; and (3) ending what it refers to as "occupational segregation."   For the past few years, ROC has published its Diners' Guide to Ethical Eating,  which purports to rank restaurants from the top 100 highest revenue-grossing restaurants in the United States, in five categories:  ROC partner, tipped wages, non-t...

Social media is widely-used in the hospitality industry for everything from promoting sales to recruiting new talent.  Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Foursquare, and a number of other sites provide hoteliers and restaurateurs with nearly limitless access to local, national, and international audiences. In recent years, sites like Yelp have emerged to provide customers with an anonymous, online platform to post reviews of businesses, and its impact is far-reaching.  In the first quarter of 2013, Yelp allegedly averaged nearly 102 million unique visitors per month.    Many businesses understand the importance of widespread feedback, monitor Yelp and other sites for both positive and negative reviews, and interact with reviewers about their experiences.  Cyber-saboteurs are an unfortunate risk to companies with an Internet presence, and a number of employers have undoubtedly been the subject of anonymous, negative and disparaging attacks by competitors or d...

On Monday, January 6, 2014, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced it would not seek review by the United States Supreme Court of two appeals courts decisions invalidating the NLRB's Notice Posting Rule, which would have required most private employers to post a notice in the workplace advising employees of their rights to unionize. In 2013, two appellate courts, the D.C. Circuit and the Fourth Circuit, enjoined the NLRB from requiring the posting, and subsequently denied the NLRB's request for en banc review.  This left the NLRB with the option of appeal to the United States Supreme Court. The NLRB's decision lays to rest, at least for now, its attempt to force employers to affirmatively assist with unionizing efforts.

In December 2013, the State of Colorado legalized the recreational use of marijuana.  Portland, Maine and Washington State have done the same, and several cities in Michigan have voted to legalize the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana for use on private property.  Other states face similar ballot initiatives.   January 1, 2014 was the first day marijuana could be sold to anyone over the age of 21 from specially-licensed stores in Colorado. The recreational use of marijuana remains illegal in Texas. The citizens of Colorado amended their constitution to permit recreational marijuana use.  Below is a summary of key provisions and enforcement information: according to the constitutional amendment, marijuana is to be regulated in a manner similar to alcohol; a Colorado resident, 21 years of age or older, may possess, use, display, purchase, or transport (although not across state lines) marijuana accessories, and up to one ounce...

For years, it has been common practice in the hospitality industry to include an automatic gratuity on the bills of larger parties, usually defined as eight or more guests.  The purpose of this practice was to, among other things, ensure that servers were not short-changed on large tabs.  Prior to January 2014, automatic gratuities were treated as tips for employees to report as income. Starting now, the IRS will classify automatic gratuities as "service charges," which means they will be treated as regular wages subject to payroll tax withholding (FICA).   Hospitality employers should be mindful that their characterization of a "tip," whether communicated orally or in writing to employees, is not controlling for purposes of this rule.  According to the IRS, the absence of any of the following factors creates a doubt as to the status of a payment as a tip, and indicates the payment may be a service charge: 1.  the payment must be made free from co...