Employment class action lawsuits are fairly common lawsuits. This is because there are many complex employee rights that are dependent on each employer, so it can be pretty easy to overlook, or to simply not know, your employee rights and be exploited. There have been a few employment class action lawsuits in the news recently, so here’s more information on what happened in each one. Knowing about other lawsuits will help you be more informed and prepared if situations like these were to happen in your workplace.
Panera Employees File Lawsuit
In December 2017, two former Panera employees in D.C. and Alabama filed a class action lawsuit against the St. Louis-based restaurant chain for not paying their overtime wages. Alan Meyer and David Cornelius filed their suit and claimed that they regularly worked over 40 hours a week (up to 60 hours) and didn’t get paid overtime from their assistant managers. The attorneys involved in the suit discovered that Panera has had a deliberate pattern of violating wage laws under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The former employees are seeking compensation from the court, including back wages, interest, and attorney fees.
University of Missouri Health Care Faces Lawsuit
The MU Health Care system, located in Columbia, Missouri, is settling a class action lawsuit for over three million dollars. Two employees are claiming that the health system doesn’t pay their employees for their 30-minute meal breaks, and that the system will deduct the 30-minute breaks, even if the breaks weren’t taken at all or not taken for the full amount. An agreement was reached in mid-December 2017 that gives the two employees each $5,000 compensation. The rest of the $3.6 million settlement amount will be divided among the remaining health system employee staff who are also part of the class action lawsuit.
If you are interested in filing an employment class action lawsuit with other employees at your job, the employment attorneys at Kesluk, Silverstein, Jacob & Morrison, P.C. can help.