Supercuts recently reached a nearly $2 million unpaid overtime class action settlement over litigation alleging the company failed to pay managers proper overtime.

The $2 million unpaid overtime class action settlement received preliminary approval from the California federal judge presiding over the litigation, U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller.

Judge Mueller gave preliminary approval to the deal, which calls for Supercuts and its parent company, Regis Corp., to pay $1.95 million in the unpaid overtime class action settlement.

The lawsuit allege that Supercuts violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and California law, including failure to pay minimum wage and overtime wage, failure to provide or pay for meal and rest breaks and failure to provide accurate itemized wage statements.

Supercuts Unpaid Overtime Class Action Settlement

Judge Mueller also gave conditional certification to two settlement classes.

“In sum, the court has reviewed the proposed settlement agreement, and finds it fair, reasonable, and adequate on a preliminary basis,” said Judge Mueller. “The plaintiff class appears likely, as a preliminary matter, to meet the certification criteria of numerosity, commonality, typicality, adequacy, superiority and predominance.”

One of these now conditionally certified settlement classes includes all individuals employed by the Supercuts haircut chain as either an area supervisor, district leader or senior district leader in California between May 8, 2010 and the date of the unpaid overtime class action settlement’s preliminary approval.

The second unpaid overtime class action settlement class includes hourly nonexempt individuals who worked at Supercuts as either a shift manager or salon manager in California during the same period.

The judge’s order stated that the classes would total around 747 current and former district leaders and 1,005 current and former managers.

$650,000 of the $1.95 million unpaid overtime class action settlement will go towards attorneys’ fees, and the two named plaintiffs will receive enhancement awards of no more than $15,000. Around $1.2 million will go towards individual payments for class members.

Though they agreed to the settlement, Supercuts and Regis Corp. deny any wrongdoing.

Wage and Hour Class Action Lawsuits

There are a series of both federal and state wage and hour laws put in place to protect workers and ensure they are treated fairly.

However, many workers across the country do not know the protections that the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) offers, which can lead to employers taking advantage of them, in some cases requiring unpaid overtime work despite the illegality of doing so.

Some workers may find themselves unable to file wage and hour complaints like unpaid overtime lawsuits because they are not aware of FLSA rules.

Other workers may be afraid that their employers will retaliate if they speak up about FLSA violations like unpaid overtime.

However, to protect workers who help to enforce FLSA rules, laws also exist to protect workers from discrimination based on wage and hour complaints.

If you have worked for an employer like Supercuts that may have failed to adequately follow the Fair Labor Standards Act or state labor laws, such as unpaid overtime requirements, you may be able to either join a wage and hour class action lawsuit or file a suit of your own.

The Supercuts Unpaid Overtime Class Action Lawsuit is Dearaujo et al. v. Regis Corporation et al., Case No. 2:14-cv-01408, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.

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