Former Employees File Wawa Overtime Lawsuit Over Unpaid Hours

Wawa, a food market and convenience store chain, is facing a Wawa overtime lawsuit that accuses the business of bilking some employees out of overtime pay.

Four former Wawa employees claim the store’s pay practices for its assistant general managers violate federal and state laws in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

This is the second lawsuit against Wawa recently. Basically, the Wawa overtime lawsuit claims that assistant general managers are misclassified as exempt from overtime because their primary responsibilities area “manual in nature.”

The assistant general managers do not include “hiring, firing, disciplining or directing the work of other employees, and exercising meaningful independent judgment,” which would constitute managerial duties.

Wawa Overtime Lawsuit Claims No Pay for Hours Worked

The four men claim they worked more than 40 hours per week on a regular basis “without receiving wages… for all hours worked, as well as overtime compensation.”

Assistant general managers operated cash registers, made hoagies and stocked shelves because Wawa did not budget enough funding to pay lower-level employees who could receive overtime pay to finish all of their duties. These responsibilities then fell to assistant general managers, who were not compensated for more than 40 hours even though they worked longer.

One plaintiff said he worked for Wawa for 10 years as an assistant general manager at four stores in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He said he usually worked 50 to 55 hours each week, but was only paid for 40.

The Wawa overtime lawsuit concerns overtime pay and financial damages sought for 100 current and former Wawa employees who worked in New Jersey locations within the past two years who held the title of assistant general manager or “comparable positions.”

The proposed class includes similarly situated plaintiffs in Pennsylvania and Maryland who worked for Wawa within the past three years.

When asked to comment on the Wawa overtime lawsuit, according to the Courier-Post, company spokeswoman Lori Bruce only said, that Wawa is “proud of our long-standing reputation for the way we value and support our associates… We are guided by our core values and always strive to do the right thing for our associates.”

Wawa also stands accused of not paying workers for the time spent on twice-daily surveys of competitors’ gas prices, excursions that required employees to use their own vehicles without compensation. This particular lawsuit affects 730 stores in six states.

Wawa Stores Make Big Money

Wawa began as a dairy. George Wood founded Wawa Dairy in 1902 in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The first Wawa Food Market opened in Folsom, Pennsylvania on April 16, 1964. The company expanded to New Jersey in 1968 and to Delaware in 1969.

By 1972, one hundred Wawa stores were open for business, most open for 24 hours.

According to its website, nearly 40 percent of the company is employee-owned. Forbes ranks Wawa 34^th in its list of largest private companies. Wawa reported revenues of more than $9 billion in 2015.

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