Single Class Certified in Big Lots Unpaid Wages Class Action

Out of a total of six proposed Classes in a Big Lots unpaid wages class action lawsuit that is currently pending in California federal court, only one has been granted Class certification.

The allegations in the Big Lots unpaid wages class action lawsuit center around the company’s alleged failure to pay workers for the time that they were required to wait in the retail location after they had finished clocking out but before the store alarm had been set.

The court found that even though the amount of individual time that employees spent waiting was too small to proceed for litigation, the group of workers remained subject to common proof, and their allegations could be heard collectively.

U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt rejected the proposal for certification for the remaining five Classes, finding that three of those classes alleged time violations for employees that worked overnight who were locked in the stores. He stated that those complaints were not clearly outlined in the claim and were not mentioned by the plaintiffs until it was too late for Big Lots to act with due diligence.

“Defendants conducted discovery of plaintiffs with respect to the claims that they were asserting,” the judge stated. “At that time, plaintiffs had the opportunity to provide clear and express notice of the three challenged classes. They did not do so.”

Two additional Classes subject to the judge’s rejection of Class certification included allegations that Big Lots violated rules surrounding rest breaks and made off-the-clock employees wait around during security bag checks. Judge Kronstadt found that the workers in these two proposed Classes did not provide sufficient evidence to show the violations were a problem common to a number of employees.

Initial Allegations in the Big Lots Unpaid Wages Class Action Lawsuit

The Big Lots unpaid wages class action lawsuit was initially filed in February 2014 by plaintiff Viola Hubbs, who used to work as a cashier for the retailer. Hubbs claimed that the company kept employees working during rest breaks and meal breaks and kept workers waiting in the locked store after they had clocked out for the day.

The initial complaint filed by Hubbs stated that she worked in excess of 40 hours per week much of the time, and that some of the time that she was waiting off-the-clock to be released from the store should be calculated as overtime pay. She stated that even if the work was not eligible for overtime pay, Big Lots and its affiliate failed to pay employees at least minimum wage for this time.

During the various stages of the lawsuit, the workers involved in the litigation sought to divide the Classes into various groups that outlined their particular complaints, according to court documents.

Hubbs stated that there were records available that could substantiate the time that employees clocked out and compare them to the separate alarm records held by the store. She also claimed that employees who worked on the closing shift are entitled to be paid for the time they spent while under the store’s control.

In response, Big Lots stated that it alarm clocks and time clocks were not synchronized to one another, and Judge Kronstadt stated that went against logic, as the company was provided incentives to have accurate, synchronized accounts of employees clocking in and out and when the alarm is set.

While the judge had previously concluded that Hubbs had only been left in the store a minimal amount of time, he stated that Big Lots paired the burden to prove that others were only affected by a small amount of time.

“There appears to be a means of measuring the amount of off-the-clock time for members of the proposed class,” Judge Kronstadt stated. “It has not been shown that all or most of them worked only a de minimis amount of time.”

The plaintiff is represented by Mark Yablonovich of The Law Offices of Mark Yablonovich.

The Big Lots Unpaid Wages Class Action Lawsuit is Case No. 2:15-cv-01601, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

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