Plainfield Pizza Drivers Receive Part Of $250K Unfair Labor Settlement

PLAINFIELD, IL — Pizza delivery drivers who worked for a Plainfield pizzeria are among 35 employees in Illinois and Indiana who recently were awarded a portion of a $250,000 court order in back wages due to unfair labor practices.

Five franchise owners of Rosati’s Pizza, including one store operator in Plainfield, were ordered to pay the money by a judge following a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor. The judgment came after a judge found that the franchisees wrongfully withheld unpaid overtime to delivery drivers at five Rosati’s locations, four of which are in Illinois.

The U.S. Department of Labor investigated payments made to employees between 2019 and 2021 and found that the five Rosati’s locations — located in Plainfield, Bloomingdale, Matteson, and Richmond as well as in Dyer, Ind. — wrongfully classified the drivers as independently contracted employees although the owners controlled their hours and assigned tasks, the department announced last week.

The agency also determined that the franchisees also failed to pay overtime at a rate of time and a half to the drivers for work done after their 40-hour-a-week shifts had ended. The owners also incorrectly categorized some management employees as exempt from overtime and failed to maintain adequate pay records.

These actions violated the Fair Labor Standards Act, the judge determined.

“A federal court has agreed with our finding that these Rosati’s franchisees must pay 35 employees fully for their hard work, and as the law requires,” said Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division District Director Thomas Gauza. “Employers who fail to understand wage laws that apply to individual employees may find there are costly consequences for not complying with the law. The Wage and Hour Division encourages workers to contact us if they believe their employer is denying them their fully earned wages.”