Failure To Pay Lawsuit For Super Market Chain

A super market chain most popular in the southern regions such as Florida, Alabama, and Georgia has been slapped with a failure to pay lawsuit by four former employees.  They claim that Publix Super Markets, which has more than 1,000 hourly workers statewide, has failed to pay overtime.

The Sun-Sentinel reports that "the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Panama City earlier this week, claims that managers should have been paid a rate of "time and a half" for overtime hours instead of the "half time."

The statement made by Publix at this time is that they have complied with the overtime pay employee labor laws. "We are confident that we're doing the right thing by our associates," said spokeswoman Maria Brous.

The lawyers representing the plaintiffs on the case, Sean Culliton and John Davis in Tallahassee are seeking a class action status for the lawsuit.   All the former employees at Publix were assigned to either the deli or bakery assistant managers for stores, according to the lawsuit.

If the former employees were actually getting paid half time and not time and a half, then the employer could very well be in violation.  Again, whether Publix willfully violated the labor law in their state is up for determination.  The lawsuit is was filed from employees who are spread across multiple store locations.  The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) states there are instances where an employee would be not be required to receive overtime pay for extended hours.  

-Seasonal workers

-Seamen employed on foreign vessels

-Employees engaged in fishing operations

-Employees engaged in newspaper delivery

-Employees who lack a high school diploma, or who have not completed the eighth grade, who spend part of their workweeks in remedial reading or training in other basic skills that are not job specific.

At any rate, the burden does fall on the employer and management to be fully versed in The Fair Labor Standards for themselves.  There are more laws that pertain to what an employer should not be doing as opposed to what they should be.  If you are an employer it is very important to stay compliant and knowledgeable and make sure that your management staff is equally as informed.

Posted in: california employment law, employee rights, employment law, failure to pay