ORLANDO — Employees at nine Florida Jersey Mike’s franchise locations have recently filed a proposed class action overtime pay lawsuit against the franchisee. The employees claim the franchisee of the Jersey Mike’s Franchise Systems Inc. avoided paying overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by splitting employee’s hours across the franchisee’s nine stores.
Claim Against The Franchise
Heather Robinson, the lead plaintiff, is a former hourly employee who had worked for the Jersey Mike’s franchise from 2012 until July of this year. In her claim, Robinson alleges the franchisee, Jeff Padgett, regularly scheduled the franchise employees to work more than 40 hours each week. Under both the FLSA and state wage laws, if a non-exempt hourly employee works more than 40 hours in a regular workweek, the employee is entitled to receive one and one half times their regular rate of pay for all time over those 40 hours. Additionally, wage laws require employers to accurately record and account for all of the hours employees work each week.
However in this case, instead of paying the Jersey Mike’s employees the overtime they earned for each hour they worked beyond the maximum 40 hour week, Padgett allegedly had a policy where employees’ hours were split between franchise locations. The franchisee’s policy was referred to as the “Padgett Policy of No Overtime Pay.” As a result of Padgett’s alleged hour splitting, employees would receive credit for all of the hours they worked, but they would only receive straight time or regular wages for their time, even for overtime.
Splitting Hours
Even if an employee works at more than one of their employer’s locations, the employee is still only working for a single employer and should therefore receive one pay stub accounting for all hours worked at all locations. When an employer splits an employee’s time records between locations, the employer is creating the appearance that the employee is a different individual at each location. And by splitting the employee’s hours, the employee must qualify for overtime at each location individually and employers can receive extra work from the employee without the extra expense of overtime.
An example of time splitting, like the one alleged with Jersey Mike’s, is an employee working 85 hours in a 2 week pay cycle at location A, but who receives two paychecks for that time period. The employee receives pay stubs from location A and from location B. One pay stub would reflect 35 hours at location A and 50 hours at location B. Together the employee receives credit for the 85 hours worked, but does not appear to have worked more than 40 hours each week or qualified for their 5 hours overtime.
If you are receiving multiple paychecks from your employer each pay cycle and the practice is denying you the overtime you have earned, our experienced team of overtime pay lawyers can help. Contact us today at (855) 754-2795 to discuss your situation. If we accept your case, we will represent you under our No Fee Promise which means there are no legal fees or costs unless you receive a settlement.