• 👩‍⚖️ Former Bartender Sues ABV
• 🥇 Summer Olympics' NA Beer Sponsor
• 💸 BrewDog To Stop Meeting 'Real Living Wage'
• 🤝 People Moves at Two Roads and Finestkind
• 📈 NIQ: NA Beer Tops $484.75 million in Off-Prem
• 🗓️ Dogfish Head’s 2024 Release Calendar

A former server has filed a lawsuit against Artisanal Brewing Ventures (ABV) alleging the craft brewery platform violated federal and state labor laws by undercompensating tipped employees and requiring them to do untipped and unpaid tasks, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina and first reported by Law 360.

The lawsuit alleges ABV violated the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act and Pennsylvania Wage Payment Collection Law.

The class and collective action complaint was filed on behalf of Laura Elizabeth Bell, a former bartender at Southern Tier Brewing Company’s taproom in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The lawsuit says Bell worked four to five shifts a week at the taproom from August/September 2018 through July 2023. Her hourly wage rate was $2.83, plus customer tips. 

The lawsuit alleges that ABV (aka Craft Revolution LLC) paid tipped employees less than the mandated minimum wage by requiring front of house staff to perform numerous tasks with no possibility of generating tips. 

The suit also alleges tipped employees were required to perform “off-the-clock” work prior to shifts, with employees’ time not recorded until the taproom opened to the public.

In Bell’s case, the lawsuit says she was required to arrive 15 minutes before the start of her shift to do uncompensated work prior to the taproom opening, and she didn’t go on the clock until the taproom officially opened. Bell estimated that she spent about a third of her total shift performing side work that couldn’t be tipped.

Additionally, the lawsuit alleges managers allegedly clocked out employees at the end of the night while they were still performing required tasks at the end of their shifts. 

The lawsuit alleges managers would collect the tip bucket along with the cash register drawers for accounting at the end of the night. Managers would then advise the bartenders if there were deductions from the tip pool to account for cash shortages in their registers, as well as how much was being allocated to server assistants and food runners. Bell claimed that about once a week some of her tips were being used to cover cash shortages.

Bell filed the lawsuit on behalf of herself and similarly situated people in a collective class as well as a Pennsylvania class. The lawsuit says Bell and the collective class are seeking unpaid minimum wages for hours worked in which the defendants failed to comply with provisions of the tip credit and pay mandatory minimum wage, unpaid off-the-clock work, and damages.

Representatives from ABV did not offer a statement as of press time.

Brewbound Insiders can read additional details.

The “official beer” of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics will be a non-alcoholic (NA) beer.

Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B) has signed on as the global beer sponsor for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games through 2028, and has designated Corona Cero 0.0% as the global beer sponsor of the upcoming Summer Olympics. 

A-B is the first beer sponsor “at the Worldwide Olympic Partner level,” according to a press release. Other exclusive partners include Coca-Cola, Toyota and Airbnb. 

The deal allows A-B to reach 4 billion people through the 2024 Olympic broadcast, on top of the expected 15.2 million people expected to visit France for the Games, AdWeek reported. Leading with an NA beer will also allow A-B to more freely advertise on France broadcasts, as well as in India and Norway, countries that have bans or restrictions on beer brands advertising on TV or at sporting events, according to AdWeek.  

This is not A-B’s first major NA beer sports sponsorship. Recall, last year A-B focused its 2022 World Cup campaign on Budweiser Zero after the host country Qatar implemented alcohol restrictions. 

A-B CEO Michel Doukeris said in the release: “This partnership illustrates the opportunity for our category to positively impact and engage with billions of fans around the world, ushering in a new era of Olympic spirit as we cheer for our favorite national teams and athletes as they go for gold. We look forward to activating at the 2024, 2026, and 2028 games.”

In the U.S., A-B’s Michelob Ultra will be the star. The light lager brand will be the beer sponsor for Team USA through the 2028 Olympics, as well as the overall beer sponsor for the 2028 Games, hosted in Los Angeles. A-B’s Budweiser previously sponsored the U.S. Olympic team for 32 years, ending in 2017.

BrewDog will no longer be an accredited Real Living Wage Employer beginning later this year, as the company will no longer meet the hourly pay requirements by the organization, BrewDog co-founder and CEO James Watt announced yesterday on LinkedIn.

While BrewDog has met the voluntary program’s minimums for nearly a decade, it will not meet the latest increase made by the Living Wage Foundation.

The Living Wage Foundation – which encourages companies to pay employees a “real living wage” based on regional living expenses – announced its new 2023/2024 rates in October. 

The overall UK rate requirement from the foundation increased from £10.90 an hour ($13.92), to £12.00 ($15.33), while the rate for London increased from £11.95 ($15.26), to £13.15 ($16.80). The change was implemented on November 1, 2023, but employers have until May 1, 2024 to comply. 

One month after the foundation’s announcement, the UK government announced it would raise its own national living wage from £10.42 ($12.14), to  £11.44 (13.32), a 10% increase, effective April 1.

BrewDog has increased wages for its bar employees by +20.4% since March 2022, but cannot implement the latest voluntary requirements “on top of all the other amazing things we do for our people, whilst still offering fantastic value for our customers at a time where they have less disposable income to spend,” Watt wrote. 

Watts also noted that “nobody’s wages are going down” and that “most of our people” will receive pay increases. Of those employees, those working outside of London will receive a +4.95% base pay increase, while employees in London will be paid +4.5% above the national living wage requirement, according to Watt.

Two Roads Brewing Company has elevated two executives on its sales and marketing teams: Collin Kennedy to VP of marketing and Brian Duprey to VP of national accounts. 

The promotions are part of Two Roads’ “leveling up its executive team to help lead its next chapter of growth,” a spokesperson told Brewbound.

In other people moves, Finestkind Brewing, the parent company of Hampton, New Hampshire-based Smuttynose Brewing, has named Felice Tecce its VP of sales operations.

Insiders can read about all the moves here.

Just how big did NA beer get in 2023? According to end-of-year data from market research firm NIQ, NA beer topped $484.75 million in off-premise dollar sales, growing +34.6%. Volume increased +25.4%. 

NA beer accounted for 85% of adult NA beverage sales. Total NA adult beverages reached $565 million last year in NIQ-tracked off-premise scans.

Dogfish Head has shared its 2024 beverage release calendar. Here’s what’s new:

• The company is keeping its new ready-to-drink canned cocktail flavors close to its vest, only teasing them with emojis;
• Dogfish’s Art Series will feature a new release, Covered in Nuggs IPA (7.1% ABV);
• An All IPA variety pack is coming to East Coast markets in February, featuring 60 Minute, 90 Minute, Slightly Mighty and Hazy Squall;
• The spring variety pack is out now featuring Colderest IPA (7%), 60 Minute, Blue Hen Pilsner and Namaste;
• Rotating into the fall and winter variety packs will be Tasty Traveler Emerald Grove Lager (5% ABV) and a new West Coast IPA, respectively.

Check out the full schedule above.