T.G.I. Friday’s to Address Leave Policy Issues

According to a news source, restaurant chain T.G.I. Friday’s has agreed to make leave-policy changes affecting the employees working at its 272 company-owned facilities. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division apparently discovered violations of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act during an investigation of a company restaurant in Shreveport, Louisiana. The company had reportedly failed to reinstate an employee who took a legal leave under the law to the same or an equivalent position at the same pay and benefits, and had not allowed the employee to return immediately. The Labor Department determined that the restaurant owed the employee three weeks of lost wages. See The Kansas City Star, August 7, 2013.