A southern Ohio man filed a lawsuit against a variety of Jet’s Pizza franchisees on Wednesday for allegedly failing to pay delivery drivers the legally mandated minimum wage.
Jet’s Pizza delivery drivers are required to use their personal automobiles and cell phones for deliveries, and while they are paid minimum wage, the lawsuit claims they are not reimbursed fairly for expenses such as automobile maintenance, gasoline and cell phone and data charges. These out-of-pocket expenses result in delivery drivers receiving less than minimum wage, the lawsuit argues.
Plaintiff Reuben West claims that at no time during his employment from January 2019 to December 2021 did the defendants track expenses incurred while making deliveries: they did not ask him to provide receipts for gas; automobile registration, maintenance or insurance; or his cell phone data plan. In addition, he alleges they failed to reimburse him the standard IRS mileage rate for the miles he drove while completing deliveries.
“Regardless of the precise amount of the reimbursements paid at any given point in time, Defendants’ reimbursement formula has resulted in an unreasonable underestimation of delivery drivers’ automobile expenses throughout the recovery period, causing systematic violations of the minimum wage laws,” court documents state.
West claims the defendants received unjust enrichment and violated the Fair Labor Standards Act, Article II of the Ohio Constitution and Sections 4113.15 and 2307.60 of the Ohio Revised Code. The plaintiff is seeking certification as a class action, declaratory judgment, unpaid minimum wages, reimbursement of expenses, damages and attorney’s fees.
The plaintiff is represented by Biller & Kimble LLC.
