Petco Overtime Class Action Lawsuit Continues for Store Managers

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Assistant store managers at Petco are moving forward with a class action lawsuit that accuses the pet store chain of failing to pay them overtime under federal wage and hour law, after a California federal judge denied the company’s request to dismiss the complaint.

The Petco class action lawsuit was filed by former assistant manager Erik Kellgren, who worked for Petco Animal Supplies Inc. from 2007 until October 2010. Kellgren launched the wage and hour lawsuit in March 2013, alleging that Petco violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by misclassifying assistant store managers as exempt from overtime pay.

In April 2013, Petco filed a motion to dismiss the unpaid overtime lawsuit on the grounds that the statute of limitations for filing the class action lawsuit had passed, and that Kellgren had not asserted factual allegations of willful violations of the FLSA. The court partially denied and partially accepted the motion, allowing Kellgren time to make more specific allegations. After Kellgren filed additional motions, it was ruled that there was sufficient evidence to argue—at this stage in the litigation—that the alleged FLSA violations were “willful.”

“Specifically, Kellgren claims that Petco intentionally underfunded labor budgets, which resulted in him and the collective action members working overtime and performing nonexempt tasks without receiving overtime compensation,” U.S. District Judge M. James Lorenz said in the June 6 Order. “This alone is sufficient to establish that Kellgren has adequately pled willfulness.”

FLSA Regulations Protect Employees

The FLSA was created to ensure that employers adequately compensate their employees. The law is very specific on the details of wage and hour obligations of employers to their workers, and includes provisions like establishing the minimum wage, mandating overtime rates of pay, enforcing mandatory breaks, and other rules designed to ensure that employees get a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work.

Wage and hour lawsuits like the Petco overtime class action lawsuit often taken the form of class action lawsuits. Class action lawsuits are a type of group lawsuit, wherein the plaintiffs allege they have suffered similar harm at the hands of the same defendant. This is designed to streamline the legal process by combining tens, hundreds, or even thousands of potential individual lawsuits into a single class action lawsuit.

This type of legal action lends itself to wage and hour lawsuits because they often involve a number of plaintiffs with very similar accusations that hinge on similar evidence. Class action lawsuits allow plaintiffs to spread the cost of the lawsuit across a number of different plaintiffs.

The Petco Overtime Class Action Lawsuit is Erik Kellgren, et al., v. Petco Animal Supplies Inc., et al, Case No. 13cv644-L (KSC), filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California.

UPDATE: November 2017, the Petco assistant manager unpaid overtime class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.

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