Walmart Hit With Unpaid Overtime Class Action by Assistant Managers

A Pennsylvania federal judge has refused to dismiss a massive wage and hour class action lawsuit, after Walmart attempted to have it dismissed.

The Walmart wage and hour class action lawsuit alleged that the retail giant failed to pay its assistant mangers overtime, even after they regularly worked more than 40 hours per week.

There a pair of unpaid overtime class action lawsuits that are now consolidated in a Pennsylvania federal court, in which the plaintiffs are seeking compensation for all missed hours.

The plaintiffs who filed the lawsuits are no longer employed at Walmart, after the company allegedly victimized them and other employees by violating federal and state wage and hour laws.

Their wage and hour class action lawsuits claim that Walmart assistant managers across Pennsylvania are routinely forced to work more than 40 hours per week, but they have not been properly compensated for the additional time.

Walmart tried to have all the charges dismissed, claiming that their former employees failed to plea a claim for relief.

However, U.S. District Judge Mark Hornak denied this motion, saying that the amount of evidence provided was sufficient, and that they had sufficiently pleaded the claims.

Judge Hornak officially issued this decision on March 31, stating that the Walmart unpaid overtime class action lawsuit reveals “the plaintiffs more than plead a plausible claim for relief.”

The judge went on to say that, “they plead with great detail their personal experiences while working at Walmart, that the work they did was generally representative of the work of assistant managers, that such work was not exempt from the overtime provision of the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act and that other assistant managers across Pennsylvania were in the same sitatution.”

Judge Hornak acknowledged that other assistant managers also qualified under the state overtime provision, noting that over 1,000 assistant managers were employed by Walmart. When Walmart tried to dismiss the claim, the plaintiffs responded, saying that Walmart also failed to compensate them for a number of training sessions, business meetings, and other business events that took up their work hours.

Judge Hornak noted there seemed to be an established system to how the store operated that affected the duties of store managers, which seemed to force them to work overtime.

At this point, Judge Hornak believes that the biggest complication with the case is ensuring the testimony and evidence the plaintiffs presented matches up with the claim they made in their amended unpaid overtime class action lawsuit.

Walmart had tried to argue that the initial lawsuit, and the amended complaint as well, do not adequately address the claims made against the company. Judge Hornak is still evaluating the Walmart class action lawsuit, but firmly states that there are valid claims of labor law violations.

To ensure no ambiguity in the case, Judge Hornak issued an order to both parties to not speak to current Walmart assistant managers. This order was issued after Walmart lawyers claimed they monitored them as clients.

Overview of Wage and Hour Complications

This wage and hour class action lawsuit is not uncommon as there are many claims against large corporations like Walmart. Businesses are allegedly often found violating state and federal wage and hour policies by denying employees overtime.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers must pay their employees the federal minimum wage rate and pay overtime if they are nonexempt employees.

According to legal experts, employers often try to misclassify employees as exempt to avoid paying overtime, or establishing work schedules that force employees to work overtime without knowing it. Exempt employees include contract and salaried employees, while systemic overtime violations often involve forcing employees to work after hours and performing off-duty tasks.

According to federal law, employees can start earning overtime when they work more than 40 hours per week, in which they start earning 1.5 times their hourly wages. Violating the FLSA can result in fines, legal action, or business shutdown for employers, so it is important to insure that they properly cover each of their employees.

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