A couple of former Hooters girls are going to war with the chain restaurant and their complaints have nothing to do with the skimpy outfits the waitresses are required to wear.
Dina Partridge of Pleasanton, Calif. is a former Hooters' waitress and she is the lead plaintiff in a case that has set off a national firestorm of lawsuits against the restaurant, according to the New York Times. Three of the leading cases were filed in California.
The waitresses complain that Hooters forced them to work long shifts without breaking, raided their tip jar and forced them to shell out their hard earned cash for their short shorts and white tops.
The reason behind so many of the lawsuits being filed in California has nothing to do with the Golden State's low threshold for exploiting women. Instead there is a broader issue at hand.
“California is the most stringent and most expansive when it comes to pro-employee laws,” William B. Gould IV, a law professor at Stanford University and the former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, told the New York Times.
So far three cases have been filed in California and the plaintiffs behind the complaints are using their stories to rally other waitresses.
A website called Suehooters.com was set up and is being run by an Oakland law firm. The group has also set up a Twitter and Facebook page, where the response has been less than overwhelming.
But people concerned about the plight of Hooters waitresses everywhere can help out by visiting the site and filling out a survey.
