A Waffle House server from Forsyth is suing the restaurant chain, saying the company illegally charged tobacco-using employees extra for health insurance — and then kept the money for itself.
What’s happening: Corkeitha Hicks filed a class action lawsuit June 23 in U.S. District Court in Macon against Waffle House Inc., which is based in Norcross. The lawsuit says Waffle House charged tobacco-using employees $92 more per month — $1,104 more per year — for health insurance than non-tobacco users paid. The charge was taken out of paychecks at $23 a week and was applied automatically unless an employee actively opted out.
The law: Federal law bars employers from charging workers more for health insurance based on health-related factors, including tobacco use, unless the employer runs a qualifying wellness program. To qualify, the program must give every tobacco-using employee a real path to avoid the full surcharge for the entire plan year, spell out that option in every plan document, and tell employees that a recommendation from their personal doctor is an acceptable alternative.
What Waffle House allegedly did wrong: The lawsuit points to three specific problems:
- Waffle House offered a quit-tobacco program called Quit for Life. Employees who finished it by September 30 got a full refund back to June 1, the start of the plan year. Employees who finished it after September 30 only had the charge stopped going forward — no refund for months already paid. The lawsuit says that violates the requirement that employees receive the full benefit of completing the program.
- Waffle House’s enrollment guides and summary of benefits documents said nothing about the tobacco surcharge or the quit program. Only the Summary Plan Description mentioned them. Federal rules require the information to appear in all plan materials.
- None of the plan documents told employees that a recommendation from their personal doctor could serve as an alternative way to avoid the surcharge, which federal rules require.
The money: The lawsuit also alleges Waffle House put the surcharge money into its own general bank accounts rather than into the employee health plan fund. By doing so, the lawsuit says, Waffle House earned interest on those funds and used them to lower its own contributions to the health plan.
What this means for you: The lawsuit seeks to cover all Waffle House employees across the country who paid the tobacco surcharge at any point in the past six years. If the court allows it to proceed as a class action, those workers could be eligible for refunds of every surcharge dollar they paid.
The path forward: The lawsuit asks the court to order full refunds to all affected employees, require Waffle House to return any profits it made from holding the surcharge money, and bar the company from collecting the surcharge again unless it brings the program into line with federal law. The case is pending before U.S. District Judge Marc Treadwell in Macon.
B.T. Clark is an award-winning journalist and the Publisher of The Georgia Sun. He has 25 years of experience in journalism and served as Managing Editor of Neighbor Newspapers in metro Atlanta for 15 years and Digital Director at Times-Journal Inc. for 8 years. His work has appeared in several newspapers throughout the state including Neighbor Newspapers, The Cherokee Tribune and The Marietta Daily Journal. He is a Georgia native and a fifth-generation Georgian.
- B.T. Clark
- B.T. Clark
- B.T. Clark
- B.T. Clark
- Georgia Server sues Waffle House for discriminating against smokers
- Atlanta's Most Wanted: Killer nabbed after 3-year manhunt
- A 19-year-old was shot and killed at a Marietta apartment complex. Two brothers are charged with his murder
- Hall County deputies looking for driver who hit utility pole and fled on East Hall Road
- Fallen tree blocks road in Roswell neighborhood
