Four longtime cooks at a restaurant in the Italy Pavilion of Walt Disney World’s Epcot theme park have filed a lawsuit in federal court, accusing their employers of wage theft by knowingly have them work off the clock for years.
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Ismael Gonzalez, LaQuita Huguely, Jennifer Quinones-Estrada and Berenice Rodriguez sued Patina Orlando and its parent company, Delaware North, based in Buffalo, N.Y. They’re hourly, full-time employees at Tutto Italia Ristorante, which is jointly operated by the defendants.
Quinones-Estrada said she and her coworkers brought their concerns about working off the clock to supervisors, but to no avail.
“We would tell chef, ‘Hey, we’re doing this for free,’ and he’d be like, ‘No overtime, no overtime,’ but he would let us continue working,” Quinones-Estrada said. “There were mixed signals.”
She said the chef wouldn’t overtly say, “‘Don’t do that work now, wait till you clock in.’ That sentence didn’t come out of his mouth. It was only ‘No more overtime in the budget to allow you to clock in earlier to do that.’”
The practice ended after their attorney, José Javier Rodríguez, sent a letter June 17 to the company demanding payment for unpaid wages.
The lawsuit was filed July 3 in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. A formal answer to the suit from their employers was due to the court Friday.
Rodriguez said at its core this is a very simple case. “They should be paid for every single hour they work,” he said. “How long the companies want to drag this out, that’s what this comes down to.”
The Delaware North website describes Patina Group as “Walt Disney Company’s largest operating partner.” It says the company has more than 200 locations worldwide, more than 40,000 global team members and serves more than 500 million guests annually.
In addition to Tutto Italia, the company operates the Tutto Gusto Wine Cellar and Via Napoli Ristorante E Pizzeria, also at the Italy Pavilion, and Space 220 in Epcot’s World Discovery section. At Disney Springs it operates restaurants including The Edison, Enzo’s Hideaway, Maria & Enzo’s Ristorante, Morimoto Asia and Pizza Ponte.
When asked for comment, Charlie Roberts, senior director for public relations at Delaware North, provided a statement earlier this week by email.
“Delaware North and Patina Group are committed to fair and proper pay practices across our global operations,” he wrote. “Because the allegations are the subject of an ongoing union grievance and litigation, it would be inappropriate to comment on the specific claims at this time.”
A response to the suit by the employers filed Friday afternoon with the court seeks dismissal, arguing that the plaintiffs fail to plausibly allege they performed such off-the-clock work, or that any such work was performed at management’s request or with management’s knowledge.
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Rodriguez said his clients’ experiences are fairly common. Employers say one thing and look the other way — knowing they’re getting free work — then try to hide behind a policy they say prohibits overtime, he said.
As hourly workers, he said his clients rely on their earnings to survive, and the law takes seriously an employer’s deprivation of their wages. This case involves federal overtime, at 1½ times their hourly rate, and contractual overtime, up to twice their hourly rate. Federal law allows a double-damage penalty if the court finds employers owe them overtime.
The letter their lawyer sent to Patina and Delaware North, demanded payroll checks of $60,575.71 for Huguely; $32,726.69 for Gonzalez; $14,296.07 for Rodriguez; and $26,851.25 for Quinones-Estrada; as well as $7,700.00 for legal fees. No checks were received by the requested date and the suit was filed the next day.
The lawsuit seeks damages for what it calls the employers’ willful failure to pay them — along with other current and former employees — for “off the-clock” preshift prepwork. It alleges violation of federal labor laws and a collective-bargaining agreement between Patina and UNITE HERE Local 737 and seeks compensation for unpaid wages and benefits, as well attorneys’ fees and costs.
“That would help tremendously, because everything has gone up, inflation is crazy,” Quinones-Estrada said about getting that check. “I’m lucky enough to be able to barely get by and have a little squirreled away.”
The lawsuit claims that with encouragement and full knowledge of management, the four cooks regularly arrived 30-60 minutes before their 9:30 a.m. shift started, but were not permitted to “clock in” before 9:25 a.m. The pre-shift work included task such as checking equipment and starting ovens.
The suit claims other employees were at the restaurant during uncompensated work and management openly discussed it. It maintains other hourly employees at Italy Pavilion restaurants were subjected to similar compensation policies, timekeeping practices and supervisory directives resulting in unpaid work. At least one other employee has joined the suit, with more possible.
A letter dated July 20 from Congressman Maxwell Frost, D-Orlando, a member of the House Labor Caucus, to Delaware North requested information about wage and hour practices at Patina Group restaurants within Italy Pavilion. The company’s response this week said it couldn’t comment on active litigation.
The congressman said Wednesday he became involved after multiple constituents reached out to him about issues related to Patina.
“The hospitality tourism industry is the life and blood of Central Florida,” Frost said. “However, we also have some of the worst wages in hospitality in the entire country.”
In addition to the lawsuit, the company faces a hearing next month in Tampa before an administrative law judge over the 2024 firing of an employee at Pizza Ponte.
A news release from the union stated that a National Labor Relations Board investigation found Patina unlawfully suspended, then fired, cashier Julissa “Julie” Ruiz, and the complaint seeks an order returning her to work with back pay.
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