Red Robin Is Being Sued Over Its Beer. Here's Why

Red Robin's attempt to move a lawsuit from a state court to a federal one has failed. The lawsuit, as Food & Wine writes, is over their serving of Stella Artois beer in Red Robin restaurants. Plaintiffs in the case claim to have ordered a pint of Stella Artois, but the special Stella Artois glasses in which Red Robin and other restaurants serve beer only contain 14 ounces, thus cheating thirsty customers of the final two ounces of a proper pint of beer.

The reason for the attempted move, as Law and Crime reports, was to get a judge whom Red Robin could consider unbiased towards the residents of Nevada, the state in which the case was heard. However, as federal judge Jennifer A. Dorsey pointed out in her motion, the case does not meet the minimum requirements to be heard as in federal courts. 

The aspect of the case that has caught the most attention, though, is that Judge Dorsey filled her response with various references to beer, including "Plaintiff Christopher Bruun's remand motion takes the fizz out of those numbers" and that "Red Robin distills this number down further. " In Judge Dorsey's words, "temperance must be exercised" in this case. Between the lawsuits and the punny judges, it seems like Red Robin really can't catch a break recently.

This is not the only lawsuit Red Robin has faced in recent times. In 2020, 16,790 Californian workers won payment of $8.5 million from the company. At the time, HR Dive explained that the complaint was due to Red Robin's "just say yes" break policy. California law demands that for every four hours on the clock, workers must get a minimum ten-minute break period. The "just say yes" policy was meant to encourage managers to provide their workers with breaks without resistance.

The problem was that, by placing the initiative for taking a break on the worker, many employees felt compelled not to take any breaks at all, lest they appear to be slacking in the eyes of their manager. A similar issue has been found with unlimited time off, as workforce.com notes. When offered unlimited leave, American employees take less time off and in some cases never take vacations or rest at all. For Red Robin, that skirted very real legal trouble, as California laws require employers to provide appropriate breaks for meals, restroom visits, and other needs.