Retail Merchandisers Class Action Settlement

PARRIS obtained a $5.625 million class action settlement on behalf of retail merchandisers who worked for one of the largest sellers of greeting cards in the United States. 

The California retail merchandisers were hourly-paid employees. The greeting card company failed to pay timely wages to our clients, including minimum wage, overtime wages, final pay, and premium payments for missed meal and rest breaks. 

The retail merchandisers were encouraged by their employer to work off-the-clock. They would travel to a multitude of retail stores to stock greeting cards and products and organize merchandise displays. They sometimes took merchandise home to scan it, and transmitted new merchandise orders through the company’s system which they could only access through their telephone line at home.

The greeting card company would only pay the retail merchandisers for the hours listed on their schedule, but would give them more work than they knew the workers could complete during their scheduled work hours. This created pressure for the merchandisers to work unpaid and off the clock. Additionally, the employees were never compensated for their time spent traveling in between stores or reimbursed for their mileage as required by California law.

All of the retail merchandisers were required to have a computer, internet, and phone service at home in order to perform their job and process the merchandising orders, but were not reimbursed for the cost of using these services. 

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

Read more about class actions and employment law. Contact PARRIS lawyers for a free case consultation today.