Plaintiff, Charles Brewer, a former California employee of GNC, claims that employees who worked the closing shifts at GNC retail stores were not properly paid for certain tasks they completed after clocking out for the day. “At a certain point during the night, GNC retail store employees log off the cash register and clock out. But they are still required to perform closing duties, including making offsite bank deposits, which leads to overtime violations.” In other words, taking the deposit to the bank after clocking out constitutes overtime. (Case No.: 11-CV-03587 YGR).
The plaintiff claims that GNC discourages employees from reporting hours worked beyond those hours they are scheduled for. “And as the court noted, GNC does not have any written policies or training and that, coupled with corporate culture to discourage overtime, results in people working off the clock nationwide. “
As per the court order: “GNC has no written policy setting forth the procedure for an employee to be paid for time spent performing post-closing duties; no written policy on estimating hours worked; and no written policy on adjusting hours to account for time spent performing post-closing duties if an employee exceeds the time estimate.”
The court estimates that 8,000 class members in the US–GNC sales associates and assistant managers — “may be entitled to overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act, (FLSA)”.
If your employer owes you overtime, please give my office, The Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman a call at (877) 449-8898 for a free consultation.
