The Oregonian | By Kristine de Leon | May 10, 2022
A former employee is suing the owner of two Pizza Schmizza locations in Portland, alleging the businesses shortchanged employees’ pay.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in Multnomah County Circuit Court, seeks to be certified as a class-action suit brought on behalf of other employees. It alleges Enso Elite Inc., a franchise operator of Pizza Schmizza’s outposts in the Pearl District and the Northwest District, “engaged in systematic wage theft by failing to pay all compensation owed to its employees for the performance of services.”
The suit was filed by Richard Lederer, who worked as a bartender at both locations from December 2021 to April 2022.
His attorney, Michael Fuller, estimates that Lederer suffered $1,400 in lost wages. The lawsuit also seeks penalties and interest.
Fuller said his practice has been contacted by at least nine former employees who worked at either or both Pizza Schmizza franchises. He estimates that, in total, Enso Elite owes “at least several tens of thousands of dollars” to all the employees involved.
“Based on the information we’ve received from those employees, the CEO (of Enso Elite) has been failing to properly pay employees off and on over the last several months,” Fuller said. “He just failed to pay their checks when they became due.”
According to the filing documents, the plaintiffs allege that Enso Elite’s CEO, Fernando Rodriguez, “has failed to return calls and text messages from his workers, and so now his employees are forced to file this class action to recover the back wages they are owed.”
The lawsuit seeks a jury trial if the wages are not paid with interest and penalties within 30 days.
Rodriguez did not respond to phone calls from The Oregonian/OregonLive seeking comment.
A spokesperson for Schmizza International, which owns and licenses the Pizza Schmizza brand and is not named in the lawsuit, said all locations are independently owned and that the company was not aware of any litigation. The spokesperson said the company was not able to speak with Rodriguez, as the company understood he was out of town on a family emergency.
