Sports Authority Employees Win $2.5M Class Action Settlement over Unpaid Wages

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A federal judge has ruled in favor of Sports Authority employees, approving a $2.5 million class action settlement in a wage and hour class lawsuit filed in California, which alleges the retail giant forced its workers to conduct off-the-clock security checks of their bags, before they exited the stores.

Official class action certification was granted to Sports Authority class action lawsuit based on the amount of evidence which was presented to the judge. The Sports Authority lawsuit alleged that the retail employees were forced to participate in off-the-clock mandatory security checks of their personal belongings, to ensure they did not take any unpaid merchandise when they exited the store, but they were not paid for the time.

The wage and hour lawsuit was recently settled, with the amount to include damages to cover all affected employees who were asked to perform these security checks. Each of these employees are minimum wage, non-exempt employees, who were employed in Sports Authority locations in the state of California, from Aug. 22, 2007 to the present. According to the final approval order, Sports Authority must pay a total of $2.5 million to pay back all wage and hour amounts owed to the Class Members.

The court’s decision was based on the evidence the Sports Authority employees brought to the courtroom, including eye witness testimony and payroll records. The court considered the complications the employees faced in presenting their wage and hour lawsuits including the risks, expenses, complexity, and the fact that the litigation process will most likely last beyond what they are expecting.

Both parties found the proposed class action settlement by Sports Authority was fair, reasonable and adequate. Under the terms of the wage and hour settlement, Sports Authority must compensate Class Members for any missing wages or back pay caused by the imposition of the security checkpoints.

This wage and hour lawsuit is Khanh Nielson v. Sports Authority, Case No. C11-4724, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Overview of Unpaid Overtime

A security checkpoint for personal belongings is merely one of many instances of off-the-clock incidents that employees face. Most commonly, employees face unpaid overtime, unpaid mealtimes, unpaid breaks, or being forced to work during mealtimes or breaks without being properly compensated. While state laws differ in wage and hour policies, most states do require employees to get meal breaks and break periods in which the employees do not work at all, and are off the clock. In California, any employee who is forced to work during a break or meal period must be compensated for the missing meal time.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires that most wage and hour employees to be paid at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked, plus overtime pay at one-and-one-half times the regular rate of pay. However, over the years, various employers have been found to use various tactics to undercut an employee’s paycheck, leading to a rising number of wage and hour lawsuits. Through the litigation process, legal experts have managed to collect a list of strategies that employers use to violate FLSA minimum wage policies, including but not limited to:

• Forcing employees to work “off-the-clock”
• Refusing to pay overtime because employee did not obtain permission to work more hours
• Failing to pay workers for breaks lasting between 5 and 20 minutes, meetings, training sessions, take-home work, and some on-call time
• Misclassifying employees as “exempt”

File an Unpaid Wage and Hour Class Action Lawsuit Claim

If you were forced to work off the clock or without overtime pay compensation within the past 2 to 3 years, you have rights – and you don’t have to take on the company alone. For more information, check out the Unpaid Overtime Lawsuit: Wage & Hour, Overtime Pay Class Action Lawsuit Investigation.