Target warehouse workers in New York, specifically “Group Leaders”, have started a class action lawsuit against the retail giant claiming that they didn’t compensate them for all hours worked. They allege that they were misclassified as exempt and were not paid for their overtime hours. The lawsuit claims that they worked 48-54 hours per week, not including the hour and a half long meetings they periodically attended as well as continuing to work once at home emailing supervisors with updates on the team’s performances that day.
It is a common practice for companies to misclassify employees which allows them to avoid many laws meant to benefit their workers. The employee in this situation is typically paid a set salary regardless of how many hours worked in a week and the worker’s FLSA status becomes exempt from overtime. Whether an employee should receive a set salary or overtime pay depends on what that employee is actually doing on a day to day basis. This is true even if you are employed as a supervisor or manager. If you spend the majority of your day performing manual or non-supervisory work, you are likely entitled to overtime pay.
In this class action, Group Leaders job duties included, but were not limited to, data entry, loading and unloading trailers, moving merchandise onto racks, completing paperwork, filling out templates at the end of shifts, attending meetings, assisting other employees, and communicating with other team members before and during the shift. Group leaders had no authority to exercise discretion or independent judgment regarding matters of significance. Their job duties at Target were in no way related to the management or general business operations. In fact, there were at least two levels of managers above Group Leaders, namely Senior Group Leaders, who are their direct supervisors, and General Managers. They also had no ability to hire and fire any member of his/her team and were even given a checklist by Target to follow each day in order to perform their job.
The plaintiffs in this class action lawsuit are looking to recover unpaid overtime, liquidated damages and penalties. The lawsuit alleges that Group Leaders worked long hours and were paid a set salary for their work when they should have been eligible to receive pay for all of their hours worked over 40 hours per week at time and a half rate their regular hourly rate. They also allege that they weren’t provided with accurate wage statements.
If you or anyone you know is unsure about being paid correctly, it is important that they contact a NYC employment attorney. At Fitapelli & Schaffer we offer a free phone consultation with one of our experienced attorneys. Give us a call at 212-300-0375 or visit www.fslawfirm.com for more information.