Sam’s Club Rejected Punch In and Out Times FLSA and PMWA Class Action

The complaint for this class action claims that workers at Sam’s Club stores are being shorted on they pay. According to the complaint, the stores’ time clocks reject punch ins or punch outs more than fifteen minutes outside of their shifts’ start or end times, and when a punch in or out is rejected, the stores figure the employees’ working hours according to their original start and end times. The complaint claims this violates the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act of 1968 (PMWA).

Two groups have been defined for this case, for violations under the two sets of laws.

• The FLSA Collective Action Group is all people who have worked in any Sam’s Club store on a full-time hourly basis during the maximum limitations period.
• The PMWA Class Action Group is all Pennsylvania residents who have worked in any Sam’s Club store on a full-time hourly basis during the maximum limitations period.

Sam’s Club is a subsidiary of Walmart, has a little fewer than 600 stores, in 44 states. Walmart has over 10,000 stores in 28 countries and 2.3 million employees. The complaint claims that Walmart and Sam’s Club jointly maintain operational control over the Sam’s Club stores. 

Plaintiff Tanielle Thomas says she was regularly scheduled to work forty hours a week for Sam’s Club. If she clocked in more than fifteen minutes early for a shift, the time clock did not record her start time. If she needed to stay late, the time clock would not record her real end time. According to the complaint, Sam’s Club allows workers to start work earlier and end work later, but its time clocks do not record the additional time and the stores do not keep accurate records or it. Because of that, the complaint says that Thomas was not paid for all the hours she actually worked. 

The complaint claims that this means that employees are not paid for all hours worked, and that they are not paid proper overtime for any hours worked over forty per week. The FLSA and PMWA both require that hours over forty per week for employees like Thomas be paid at time-and-a-half.

In addition, the PMWA requires that employers keep accurate records of hours worked by employees as well as the wages paid to them. It also says that “any agreement between the employer and the worker” is not a defense to civil actions brought under this labor law. 

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Employment
Tags: Employment Violations, Not Paid for All Hours Worked, Overtime Not Paid at Overtime Rates