Carter’s Escapes $12M Wage Theft Class Action Lawsuit

Carter’s Wage Theft Class Action Lawsuit Overview: 

• Who: A former Carter’s employee’s class action lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge. 
• Why: The judge found the proposed Class lacking in the lawsuit alleging Carter’s didn’t pay its workers for mandatory security checks and didn’t allow them to properly take their breaks.
• Where: The class action lawsuit is pending in California court.

Carter’s has dodged a class action lawsuit alleging it owes its children’s clothing store workers $12 million in unpaid wages after a judge ruled it cannot proceed in its current form. 

Carter’s Retail Inc employees have not sufficiently proved they all suffered in the same way due to the company’s work break and security check policies, California federal Judge Josephine L. Staton ruled in an Oct. 21 order denying Class certification. 

“The evidence upon which plaintiff relies indicates a lack of commonality across defendant’s stores in California,” she said.

Carter’s Wage Theft Violations, Missed Breaks, Pay, Claims Class Action Lawsuit

Plaintiff Nathan Christensen, a Carter’s sales manager, alleges that workers were required to undergo mandatory security checks after their shifts, but they were not paid for their time. 

He says from the time he started working at Carter’s, from 2015 through Sept. 2018, about 7,680 workers were required to undergo security checks after they clocked out from their shifts, and should be compensated millions in unpaid wages for that time. 

Carter’s updated its policies that September, requiring workers to do the security checks before clocking out, he says.

He also alleges that 7,830 workers weren’t able to leave the store’s premises during their rest breaks, unless they got express permission from their employer. 

However in her ruling, Judge Staton said she didn’t believe the two situations fulfilled the requirements for Class certification.

She pointed to testimony provided by employees that did not seem to indicate that employees felt they couldn’t leave the store during their breaks and many preferred to stay in the store for the break anyway. 

“In all, the evidence described above—including the evidence provided by Plaintiff—does not demonstrate a policy uniformly applied in a way that resulted in the denial of rest breaks free of employer control,” she said.

Regarding the security checks, she said testimony from employees indicated that most bag checks were done on work hours, and not after.

“In all, Plaintiff has failed to provide substantial evidence of a uniform unlawful policy or practice consistently applied during the class period,” she said.

The decision comes as Carter’s faces another class action lawsuit claiming the company uses false discounts from inflated and fake reference prices to dupe consumers. The children’s clothing giant has also been accused of sending deceptive emails to Carter’s customers in recent years. 

To see if you qualify to join a California wage and hour class action lawsuit investigation click here (links to paid attorney advertisement). 

The plaintiff is represented by Norman B. Blumenthal, Kyle R. Nordrehaug, Aparajit Bhowmik and Piya Mukherjee of Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP.

The Carter’s Wage Theft Class Action Lawsuit is Nathan Christensen v. Carter’s Retail Inc. et al., Case No. 8:20-cv-00776, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. 

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