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The state Superior Court on Friday affirmed a county judge’s decision that McDonald’s franchise owners hampered hourly employees’ earnings by issuing fee-heavy payroll cards.

A three-judge panel sided with Luzerne County Judge Thomas Burke Jr.’s June 2015 ruling against the Clark Summit-based franchisees of area McDonald’s restaurants and the bank that issued the cards, writing in an eight-page opinion that a debit card “is not ‘lawful money’ and it is not a ‘check’” as deemed by the Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Law.

A class consisting of current and former McDonald’s employees brought the suit on allegations Albert and Carol Mueller, owners of 16 McDonald’s franchises in the state, paid them through a mandatory payroll card rather than by cash or check.

The bank and the Muellers had sought to have the case tossed, arguing Nigel King and the other plaintiffs who brought the suit failed to support a claim under state law.

Attorney Michael Cefalo of West Pittston, who represents about 2,400 people in the class-action suit, said Friday his clients “won a long hard battle.”

“We made a new law,” Cefalo said in an email. “Now the kids can get the justice they deserve.”

Cefalo said his clients are entitled to about $500 each.

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By Joe Dolinsky

[email protected]

Reach Joe Dolinsky at 570-991-6110 or on Twitter @JoeDolinskyTL.