It is not a good day for two mass retailers in California, as reports of lawsuits against J.Crew and Abercrombie & Fitch are coming to light. According to The Fashion Law, an employee at one of J.Crew’s Los Angeles locations has filed suit against the company for neglecting to pay him overtime hours, and a manager at a Hollister in Northern California is taking action against Abercrombie for similar reasons.
The plaintiff, Andrew Duberry, says that not only did J.Crew fail to give him his due money, but it doesn’t properly pay other employees for meal breaks and overtime. The suit maintains that J.Crew “engaged in a uniform policy and systematic scheme of wage abuse against their hourly paid or nonexempt employees within the State of California and the policy of denying wages for off-the-clock work and missed meal breaks means that store employees were often not paid minimum wage.” Furthermore, employees cannot get their hands on their payroll documents, which would help make their payment practices clearer. These practices break the California labor code, and Duberry is looking to be compensated accordingly.
At the Abercrombie-owned Hollister, Samantha Jones claims she was not compensated for on-call hours or overtime, in spite of her managerial staff position. Her suit alleges that Abercrombie, “as a matter of corporate policy, practice and procedure, intentionally, knowingly and systematically failed to compensate plaintiff and the class members for all hours worked (for on-call time), and undercompensated them for overtime worked that should have been paid at overtime rates had the on-call time been paid for.”
Abercrombie is no stranger to lawsuits, though discrimination and offensive/inappropriate clothing seems to be its usual M.O. in the legal department. Still, the company recently had two wage-based suits filed against it this year. We don’t know if the influx in compensation suits has to do with the company’s floundering standing. Either way, when you mess with people’s money, you’ve got to expect they will eventually come for what they’re owed.
[via The Fashion Law]
