TJ Maxx Wage and Hour Lawsuit Ends in $8.5M Settlement

A TJ Maxx wage and hour lawsuit is in its final stages now that the parties have submitted a preliminary settlement for court approval.

Department store giant TJ Maxx has agreed to pay $8.5 million to settle numerous claims of wage and hour violations, offering relief to a plaintiff Class of almost 83,000 employees.

The class action TJ Maxx wage and hour lawsuit claims that thousands of employees were forced to wait off the clock at their workplaces while their managers finished closing the stores. Others claimed they were refused meal breaks on a regular basis.

“The proposed $8.5 million non-reversionary class action settlement of this wage and hour case was achieved after nearly three-and-a-half years of hard-fought litigation. [T]his settlement will provide substantial monetary payments to more than 80,000 retail store employees/class members as well as significant injunctive relief,” the lead plaintiffs said.

Filed in California federal court, the TJ Maxx wage and hour lawsuit settlement allocates $5.535 million to Class Members. Plaintiffs’ counsel is to receive $2.61 million in fees.

The named plaintiffs will receive a total of $40,000 in incentive awards, and $250,000 will be set aside to cover administration of the settlement. In addition, the state of California will receive $100,000 for the worker’s Private Attorney General Act claim.

Along with settling the wage and hour claims, TJ Maxx has also agreed to update its wage statements to meet the standards of California state law.

The plaintiff Class encouraged the court to approve the proposed settlement, stating the amount fairly settles all allegations and eliminates the need for ongoing litigation.

Overview of TJ Maxx Wage and Hour Lawsuit

Lead plaintiff Kimberly Roberts filed the class action TJ Maxx wage and hour lawsuit in September 2013 against parent company TJX Cos. Inc., which also owns Marshalls and HomeGoods.

Roberts alleged the company failed to pay overtime benefits to employees working at TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, and Marshalls retail stores. She further alleged the companies violated state and federal labor laws by denying overtime to these employees.

Roberts amended her proposed Class in 2014 to apply only to workers in California. In 2015, she dropped her overtime claims and added claims for failure to pay minimum wage and for failure to provide meal and rest breaks as required by law.

She also added plaintiffs Carneisha Forney and Laurie Mullen as named plaintiffs in her second amended complaint.

The parties then entered mediation during the discovery process. They reached the proposed settlement in June 2016 and submitted it for approval recently.

The settlement is meant to provide relief to two Classes. One payment Class consists of 82,947 current and former non-exempt California employees who worked at either TJ Maxx, Marshalls, or HomeGoods from October 2009 to August 2016.

The other Class covers current workers who will have their future payment statements amended to be compliant with California state regulations.

The TJ Maxx Wage and Hour Lawsuit is Kimberly Roberts, et al. v. TJ Maxx of CA LLC, Case No. 3:13-cv-04731 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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