Firetruck Company Burned by Class Action Over Wages

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Pierce Manufacturing, the nation’s largest firetruck manufacturer, was hit with a class action lawsuit alleging the Wisconsin company failed to pay a portion of its employees’ wages for years.

Lead plaintiff Eric Ehmann alleges that Pierce shorted its employees for 50 minutes of work every week over the course of decades. The plaintiff claims that he and others employed by the firetruck manufacturer have not been paid for short breaks that they should have been paid for by law as non-exempt workers.

According to the class action, Pierce sent a memo to employees a month ago indicating they would be shortening their shifts by about 10 minutes to supposedly allow the workers to spend more time with their families.

The plaintiff alleges that he found this reasoning dubious and started to look into it further. Eventually, Ehmann says he found that Pierce should have been paying its workers for short breaks, but hadn’t, and this practice had been going on for decades.

According to the firetruck company class action lawsuit, Ehmann as well as all other production employees including assemblers, painters, material handlers, and welders, were required to electronically clock in and out of work and Pierce kept a record of their time worked.

“[Pierce’s] policy in practice was to have non-exempt Production employees like Plaintiff take a ten (10) minute break during approximately the first half of their shift, and then to take a twenty (20) minute break during approximately the second half of their shift. These are paid breaks,” alleged the plaintiff in his complaint.

The Pierce class action lawsuit states that the plaintiff typically worked between 44 and 50 hours a week; however, Pierce only compensated him for up to 44 hours each work week. The plaintiff alleges the same was true for other employees, but that Pierce’s “policy in practice failed to compensate non-exempt Production employees like Plaintiff for all hours worked each workweek.”

The plaintiff seeks to represent all non-exempt production workers employed by Pierce over the past three years who have been denied overtime pay by Pierce’s alleged policy. The class action alleges that Pierce violated Wisconsin’s Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, along with failing to pay overtime wages and failing to pay the agreed upon wage under other Wisconsin laws. The plaintiff also seeks damages on behalf of himself and the proposed Class as well as attorneys’ fees and costs.

Ehmann is represented by James A. Walcheske of Walcheske & Luzi LLC.

The Pierce Firetruck Company Unpaid Wages Class Action Lawsuit is Ehmann v. Pierce Manufacturing Inc., Case No. 16-CV-247 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Green Bay Division.