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American Cruise Lines Inc. has reportedly reached a $1 million class action settlement over allegations it violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by failing to pay its stewards minimum wage and overtime pay.
On Monday, the plaintiffs urged a Connecticut federal judge to preliminarily approve their proposed class action settlement and to certify a Class of individuals who worked for American Cruise Lines as stewards or galley stewards during any workweek between May 18, 2012 and Jan. 9, 2016. More than 1,000 stewards are expected to qualify as Class Members of this unpaid overtime settlement.
Plaintiffs Nicole McCormick, Jesus Estrada and Justice Kimmons filed the American Cruise Lines class action lawsuit on May 18, 2015, alleging the river cruise company misclassified its stewards and galley stewards as exempt under the seaman exemption of the FLSA and related state-law exemptions. They claim that American Cruise Lines owes the affected stewards unpaid minimum wages and overtime wages due to this alleged misclassification.
American Cruise Lines sought to have the unpaid overtime class action lawsuit dismissed, but its attempt was unsuccessful. The parties subsequently engaged in mediation and executed the proposed settlement agreement in January.
The plaintiffs urged the judge to preliminarily approve the class action settlement because a trial would “consume tremendous time and resources” for the parties and the court.
“This is because the main overtime exemption issue is the [Connecticut Minimum Wage Act’s] seaman exemption, which would require careful analysis of the job duties of over a thousand employees, many of whom held different job titles, performed different job duties, worked on different cruise ships reporting to different managers, and allegedly worked dozens of unrecorded overtime hours per week,” the plaintiffs argue in their motion urging the judge to approve the class action settlement.
They argue that any judgment would probably be appealed, further extending the burden and expense of the litigation. According to the court documents, the plaintiffs reviewed more than 700 pages of documents as well as a “significant amount of employee data” that was organized in spreadsheets.
“The settlement, on the other hand, makes monetary relief available to Class Members in a prompt and efficient manner,” the plaintiffs argue.
According to the court documents, notice of the American Cruise Lines settlement will be mailed to Class Members’ last known address within seven days of the preliminary approval date.
Instructions on how to file a claim for the American Cruise Lines class action settlement were not immediately available. Keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter for the latest updates. You can also mark this article as a “Favorite” using your free Top Class Actions account to receive notifications when this article is updated.
The plaintiffs are represented by Bruce E. Newman of Brown Paindiris & Scott LLP and Steven Bennett Blau and Shelly A. Leonard of Blau Leonard Law Group LLC.
The American Cruise Lines Unpaid Overtime Class Action Lawsuit is McCormick, et al. v. American Cruise Lines Inc., Case No. 3:15-cv-00741, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.
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46 thoughts onAmerican Cruise Lines Settles Unpaid Overtime Class Action Lawsuit
Anyone gotten the check/ know when it’s gonna show up?
I received a letter from a law firm
regarding this case along with a paper to sign to be part of
this settlement. I worked for American Cruise Lines in
May/June 2015. I suggest you contact this company and
see about joining the case– this is where the paper I
signed was mailed to, although there is a law firm in
Connecticut on the paperwork. I don’t remember the
name of the lawyer. Make sure to include the case
number:
American Cruise Lines Suit Civil Case # 3:15-cv-741VLB
C/O: Simpulis
PO Box 26170
Santa Ana, CA 92799
The deadline to join is sometime in mid November. Make
sure you provide your complete name, dates of working and
last 4 numbers of your social security number in your query
letter to them, include your full name and contact
info. If you had the misfortune of working for these
bloodsuckers, you should have received a mailing to your
last mailing address on file at the time you worked for
American Cruise Lines. I received my paperwork about
two weeks ago. Also– I was reimbursed for the unpaid
training week in Connecticut after filing a complaint with
the Labor Board. They are supposed to be paying us for
that and they don’t. I also encourage anyone coming
across this page to post reviews on Indeed.com and
Glassdoor.com about the realities of working for
American Cruise Lines. They have a full time ‘social
media’ person who does nothing but craft fake reviews saying
how great the company is to work for. They use it to
rope in fresh meat. Please take a minute to post the
real story and maybe save other people the agony that this
company inflicts on their workers. This is the worst
company I’ve ever worked for and I have been in the working
world for over 35 years.
Hi I received my lether in the mail
And i signed and mailed it but I didn’t see that I had to include any info like the time I worked there and the case number. Should I request another form?
You should contact either class counsel or the settlement administrator with questions about your claim. Class counsel is listed at the bottom of the article and can be Googled for contact information. The settlement administrator is Simipluris: http://www.simpluris.net/pages/contact-us.aspx. Good Luck!
i got a letter in the mail aswell, i misplaced it…how do i go about requesting another form???
Woohoo! I’m curious to see how much monetary relief we recieve.
Doubt we will get even a grand
Would make for a nice little lottery win.
sexually harassed by a manager about my sexuality, but was punished by being forced to another ship. On that ship the manager lied to me and said they were going to send me home for a week until they could send me another ship because there wasn’t enough work after the charter cruise. I waited a week, called the head boss who promised to call back then ignored me after days of trying to get information. I’m thankful for the travel experience and people I met. However, I’m not thankful for being treated unfairly for who I am.
How do I claim for this? Half of the people on my boat got fired for “hooking up” with people even though the managers were all getting drunk and hooking up w eachother lol also I had to wake up and iron all the tablecloths at like 5am because I was in trouble. I was so pissed when I would see my paycheck every time. HOW DO I GET MY MONEY?
You should contact either class counsel or the settlement administrator with questions about your claim. Class counsel is listed at the bottom of the article and can be Googled for contact information. The settlement administrator is Simipluris: http://www.simpluris.net/pages/contact-us.aspx.
Yes so many hours worked that we weren’t paid for !!! Not to mention the “Hotel Manager” was stealing our tips and even caught for it and nothing was done! We were treated like shit and when I was sick as a dog I was forced to clean and disinfect everything around me with horrible harsh chemicals! When all I needed was a few hours rest and some medicine! I love the experience but the way we were treated and thought of was absolutely dreadful! Thank you to whoever had the funds and balls to file against them!
Did you get papers for this yet? Holly just told me about it.
I got my claim papers yesterday. In my calculations, those that worked with me accumulated roughly 300 overtime hours. I wrote a nice long statement to send in with my claim. There really are so many things to say about the company that we witnessed on our ship.
Jen how did you get your claim papers?
Will it be mailed to the address we had our W2s sent to?
You should contact either class counsel or the settlement administrator with questions about your claim. Class counsel is listed at the bottom of the article and can be Googled for contact information. The settlement administrator is Simipluris: http://www.simpluris.net/pages/contact-us.aspx.
I haven’t seen an update since March. How do we file a claim for this?
You should contact either class counsel or the settlement administrator with questions about your claim. Class counsel is listed at the bottom of the article and can be Googled for contact information. The settlement administrator is Simipluris: http://www.simpluris.net/pages/contact-us.aspx.
How do we claim for this?