Belt v. P.F. Chang’s China Bistro

Servers at P.F. Chang’s China Bistro filed a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) collective action, alleging that the restaurant required servers to do un-tipped work, like cleaning, for more than 20% of their shift, but paid them the lower tipped minimum wage for all of their time. After more than 6,000 P.F. Chang’s servers opted in, the parties reached a settlement. P.F. Chang’s filed a motion to file certain parts of the settlement agreement under seal, and the district court granted the motion. As a result, in the public filings, a host of information is redacted, including the total amount of the settlement, the amount each plaintiff should expect, and the total attorney’s fees.

On behalf of law professor Charlotte Alexander, whose work focuses on employment law and judicial transparency, Public Citizen filed a motion to intervene for the limited purpose of moving to unseal and a motion to unseal. The papers explain that the public has a right of access to settlement terms in FLSA litigation and that secrecy surrounding FLSA settlement terms threatens to interfere with the public’s ability to oversee enforcement of the statute and workers’ ability to use FLSA victories to publicize employer wrongdoing, spread awareness of employees’ rights, and deter future wage and hour violations. P.F. Chang’s purported interest in being protected from “speculation” as to the merits of the case, the motion explains, does not overcome the strong presumption of public access to FLSA settlement information.