Hourly Retail Employee Settlement

PARRIS obtained a $3.78 million settlement on behalf of hourly-paid employees who worked for a high-end cookware, kitchen décor, and gourmet foods retailer in California.

The retailer failed to pay the hourly retail employees for all of their hours worked, including overtime wages, premium payments for missed meal and rest periods, off-the-clock wages, and waiting time penalties.

It was the retailer’s strict policy that no hourly employees were permitted to work overtime. The district managers were told to do what they needed to do to stay within their payroll budget, so the stores were understaffed and hourly employees were forced to forgo meal and rest periods. They would work three to five hours of overtime each week that they were not paid for. Employees were instructed that they were not allowed to clock in before their scheduled shift started, even if they were working as required by their manager. They were also required to clock out at the end of their scheduled shift, even if they continued to work to finish all of their work tasks for the day.

Store labor hours were allocated to the stores dependent on their sales volume. This perpetuated an endless cycle of off-the-clock work in which employees spent every minute of their scheduled shifts and off-the-clock work hours selling and performing customer service in an attempt to grow their sales volume for more labor hours.

Other PARRIS off-the-clock class action case results include a $29.5 million settlement on behalf of hourly workers against a major home improvement company and a $7.8 million settlement on behalf of hourly workers against a chicken processing plant.

You should be paid for every minute you work. Contact PARRIS for your free case consultation today.

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