Duff on Hospitality Law

Understanding Basic Menu Health Warning Requirements in the State of Washington

Over the past several months, we’ve received a number of client inquiries regarding menu labeling requirements, specifically the warnings required under Washington’s Food Code. A companion piece on Oregon’s requirements will be posted soon. Enjoy.

From fine dining to family-style restaurants, menus set the tone and begin a dialog with their patrons about the variety of food and drink options offered by the dining establishment. They also serve as real estate for public safety and legal disclaimers intended to protect patrons from food borne illness--and restaurateurs from claims and lawsuits. Aside from Pacific Northwest Portlandia comic relief (a television show based in Portland whose first episode features diners inquiring about the quality of life of the chicken they are about to order), many actually read the fine print off menus: Where are those oysters from? How was that albacore caught? Are the tomatoes heirloom?

As many of you will recall, I dedicated two posts earlier this year to tip pooling and Oregon and Washington restaurant owners' ability to share tips with traditionally non-tipped employees - Tip Pooling in Oregon and Washington, Tip Pooling - UPDATE. With the amount of attention that tip pooling continues to receive, I thought it time to enlist my Portland, Oregon partner, Eric A. Lindenauer, the lawyer who actually represented the Portland restaurant owner in the seminal Cumbie v. Woody Woo, Inc. decision, to provide a brief summary of the Woody Woo decision and recent developments in the ongoing tip pooling saga.

Thank you Eric for updating all of us.

The extent to which an employer can require employees to share tips with non-tipped employees remains a hot topic, especially in the federal Ninth Circuit, which encompasses Alaska, Washington, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, California, Arizona and Hawaii.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) where an employer claims “tip credit” toward the federal minimum wage, the employer may only require that employees pool tips with other employees who “customarily and regularly receive tips.” Assuming an employee is informed of the intent to take tip credit and other requirements are met, an employer can use an employee’s tips to offset all but $2.13 of the federal minimum wage.

We’re back . . .  With the incredibly busy and challenging past four weeks behind us, it gives me great pleasure to announce that Diana Shukis, Michael Brunet, Ruth Walters and I have joined the team of attorneys at the law firm of Garvey Schubert Barer. Effective November 1, 2011, our hospitality team joined Garvey Schubert Barer to launch Garvey Schubert Barer’s new Hospitality, Travel and Tourism practice.

Washington hotel owners, operators and suppliers enjoyed two days of learning, socializing and recognizing their colleagues' successes at the recent Washington Lodging Association's 2011 Annual Conference at the incredible Tulalip Resort and Spa. This year's Conference featured a variety of presentations on workforce challenges, recent changes to the ADA, revenue management, fraud prevention and social media. 

Just two weeks ago over 300 restaurateurs, hoteliers and industry suppliers came together in Bend, Oregon, for the 2011 Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association Annual Conference. I had the chance to attend this year's Conference and to present during Sunday's opening sessions.

I know. I know. Here it is the end of September and I am only now posting details on the 2011 ZINO Zillionaire Investment Forum that occurred weeks ago. What can I say, it is fall conference season and the many seminars, conferences, panels and presentations scheduled for the months of September, October, November and December are taking their toll. That said, I wanted to take the time to share highlights from this terrific all day investment forum put on by our friends at ZINO at Seattle's Museum of History and Industry.

This week, Employment Law partner & Hospitality team member, Diana Shukis, breaks down the effects of Seattle’s recently enacted “Sick Leave” requirement. On September 12, 2011 the Seattle City Council approved an ordinance that requires businesses with five or more employees to provide paid leave for employees when they or their family members are ill or a victim of domestic violence. The new leave requirement goes into effect on September 1, 2012. Here are answers to common questions to help guide you as you think ahead toward compliance:

If you have a trademark that is registered with the United States Patent & Trademark Office before September 1, 2011, and you are not in the adult entertainment business, you should consider making a pre-emptive registration of the URL [your trademark].xxx now, to prevent someone who is in the adult entertainment industry from registering it later.

Fall is upon us and like every fall, there is no shortage of upcoming travel and tourism industry events to attend. Over the next few months, our team will be busy attending and speaking at a number of industry-related events.

Upcoming events include:

(Companion post to “Do You Know What’s Happening on Your Network? Copyright Infringement.”)

A number of organizations, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Chilling Effects, keep watch on what they consider overly aggressive policing of rights on the Internet by owners of copyrights and trademarks. Lately, a couple of extremely irate attorneys have taken up the cause against Getty Images and its ilk, going so far as to call them extortionists. BMI, ASCAP and SESAC are widely loathed in every industry but their own. Copyright owners these days are, depending on who you talk to, defending their rights against millions of infringers on the Internet, or filing lawsuits they never intend to pursue to make money by forcing settlement in a last, desperate attempt to prop up a business model that is doomed to failure in the Web 2.0 age. Either way, there seems to be a significant increase in policing of potentially illegal copying and use of protected materials that may find its way to you.