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Pandemic pay that has been offered in several industries as an incentive for many essential workers during the height coronavirus outbreak has been under much scrutiny in the last several months. For example, many workers within the meat packing industry who were offered pandemic pay as a bonus for working in dangerous conditions for months on end have now noted that their employers have failed to properly pay them during this time. This is the case with employees of pork producer Smithfield Packaged Meats Corp. who claimed they went unpaid for the proper overtime when working long hours. More than 30,000 workers stand ...

A Domino’s Pizza franchise owner has agreed to settle claims of unpaid wages for over 3,000 of its delivery drivers. In March of 2019 pizza delivery drivers brought a class and collective action in North Carolina under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and the North Carolina Wage and Hour Act (“NCWHA”) that alleged this Domino’s franchise, Team Carolinas, failed to reimburse their expenses in turn bringing their pay well below the minimum wage. The $3 ...

DCS, a Texas based third party vendor providing services to companies in the oil and gas industry, has been sued for unpaid wages. Affected employees that brought this lawsuit forward include Day Rate Employees for the company that have alleged that they have not been properly paid for all hours worked as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) resulting in unpaid overtime. This lawsuit seeks to recover overtime pay for all current and former day rate employees who provided services on behalf of DCS ...

Google and one of its staffing agencies have recently agreed to settle claims that its workersweresignificantly unpaid for hours worked. The Silicon Valley staffing agency, Vaco Technology Services LLC, and Google have agreed to pay out $1.5 million in order resolve these claims brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and California state laws. A proposed class of more than 200 workers who were involved in completing work for Google’s educational virtual reality projects stand to benefit from this payout if the settlement is approved by a federal judge.

The claims in ...

Bar S Services Inc. (“Bar-S”), a leading full-service provider to commercial/industrial oil and gas companies, has just been sued for failure to pay proper wages. Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP, alongside Bruckner Burch PLLC, recently filed a class action lawsuit against the company for unpaid overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). Affected employees include load operators, truck operators and other similarly situated laborers (collectively “Non-Exempt Laborers”), who work or have worked for Bar-S Services Inc. throughout the United States.

Non-Exempt Laborers for Bar-S regularly work over 40 hours per week up to approximately 90 hours ...

Amazon was recently accused of significantly shorting its essential workers on tips and has now agreed to settle these claims for over $60 million. The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), a federal agency with a dual mission to protect consumers and promote competition in our dynamic economy, filed a complaint against the online retailer in late 2019 after numerous complaints from workers. The complaint alleged Amazon had several policies in place dating back to 2015 that misled workers in the Amazon Flex, AmazonFresh, and Prime Now programs into believing they would be receiving a significantly higher minimum wage as well as ...

Kohl’s, the department store chain, has agreed to settle a collective action alleging unpaid wages to its assistant store managers. The $2.9 million pay out will resolve claims that the retailer incorrectly classified its assistant store managers as exempt from receiving overtime. This case was brought under the federal labor law, the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), which covers a wide range of employee rights including overtime pay.

The initial lawsuit which was filed in January 2018, alleged that Kohl’s misclassified employees in assistant store manager positions as exempt from overtime pay and violated the FLSA when they failed to pay ...

The number of layoffs that have been attributed to Covid by companies this past year have been astronomical. Employees often have had little to no notice when being laid off making it extremely difficult to cope during these trying times. What rights, if any, do workers have when it comes to being terminated on the fly? Existing laws, such as the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act), make it illegal for companies with 100 employers or more to fire 50 or more individuals within a short span of time without giving ...

Fast food workers in New York City have just gained significant protections against layoffs. Two bills were signed into law this past Tuesday by Mayor Bill de Blasio adding measures to shield workers from terminations without just cause or a significant economic reason. These additional restrictions for layoffs will provide much needed job stability for fast food workers that have been facing widespread challenges in the restaurant industry during the pandemic.

The first bill discusses fast food chains new requirement to present “just cause” when terminating or reducing a fast food workers hours by more than 15%. “Just cause” has been defined as failing to perform job ...

A popular convenience store chain in Pennsylvania, Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores Inc.,has just agreed to resolve claims of unpaid wages for almost $3 million. Employees that worked as Operations Managers for Love’s throughout Pennsylvania filed a class action lawsuit back in 2017 alleging they were owed overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). These Operations Managers claimed that the convenience store chain incorrectly classified them as exempt from overtime pay when working over 40 hours per work week.

The lawsuit alleges that even though these Operations Managers were in high-ranking positionsthey should not have been exempt from overtime pay because ...