Outback Steakhouse. Photo: Shutterstock.com

A prospective class action lawsuit that potentially affects hundreds of servers at nine Outback Steakhouse restaurants in Connecticut claims the Tampa-based chain violated the minimum-wage law for time spent performing nonservice duties.

The lawsuit filed April 18 in Hartford Superior Court alleges servers regularly performed 30 to 60 minutes of nonservice work each day at $6.38 an hour. The state set the $6.38 minimum wage for service duties such as waiting tables because restaurant workers can make up the difference in tips.

The lawsuit alleges the employees should have been getting the state's $10.10 minimum wage for nonservice work such as general cleaning and stocking duties.

Hartford-based Hayber Law Firm filed suit on behalf of former Newington, Connecticut, server Ryan Reutenauer, who worked for the eatery from February to June 2017. Richard Hayber said the restaurant owes Reutenauer several thousands of dollars.

The class covers hundreds of servers who worked at any of the nine Connecticut restaurants since April 4, 2017.

“We are taking about hundreds of thousands of dollars per restaurant. That is my educated guess, although we will have the exact number through discovery,” Hayber said Monday.

The defendants are Outback Steakhouse of Florida LLC, its parent company Bloomin' Brands Inc. and OSI Restaurants Partners LLC, a sister company and subsidiary of Bloomin' Brands. All three companies are based in Tampa.

As of Monday afternoon, the defendants had not retained legal counsel for the lawsuit. Bloomin' Brands spokeswoman Cathie Koch and chief legal officer Joseph Kadow did not respond to requests for comments by deadline.

Hayber said it's up to out-of-state corporations to be up-to-date on the wage laws in states where they do business. He said the defendants in this case were not.

“National corporations that come into our state and hire minimum-wage workers have to read our laws and obey them, and these laws are well-documented,” Hayber said. Minimum wage laws “are supposed to be written on a poster, required to be hung in the restaurants.”

Hayber said he will learn via discovery whether the posters were in place and if Outback differentiated between service hours and nonservice hours. If there was no differentiation, the $10.10 hourly rate applies. “The law is very strict in this regard,” he said.

“I believe that lawsuits on behalf of minimum-wage workers are some of the most important lawsuits our court system can handle,” Hayber said. “These workers are really the most vulnerable people in our economy. They are typically young and have the least resources and knowledge of the laws.”

The lawsuit seeks certification as a class and monetary damages for unpaid wages.

Assisting Hayber is colleague Thomas Durkin.

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