If you are a Chinese employee working in Pennsylvania, you may be eligible to file an unpaid overtime claim. While the federal labor law allows employers to pay employees a set weekly salary for fluctuating workweeks, the traditional method of paying overtime is preferred by some courts. For example, two recent Pennsylvania cases favored employers that paid overtime by time-and-a-half. Nevertheless, your lawsuit may not be as straightforward as filing a class action in federal court.
Pepsi
The class action lawsuit addressing PepsiCo’s practices in 2011 and 2012 is currently in court in Massachusetts. The plaintiffs allege that Pepsi failed to pay their workers properly for overtime work and wrongly adjusted their wages to time and a half instead of the normal rate. As a result, they were not paid the proper overtime rate and the employer improperly reduced their holiday pay, based on agreed-upon criteria, and received bonuses for working extra days of the week.
This tactic is considered illegal in Pennsylvania. A federal judge ruled that the method of paying employees for Chinese Overtime violates the state’s minimum wage law. This ruling could lead to a new wave of Chinese Overtime litigation in the state. Pepsi is just one of many companies involved in similar suits. Listed below are some of the facts of this lawsuit against Pepsi:
GNC
In a recent decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld a class-action lawsuit against GNC, ruling that the company violated state overtime law by underpaying its workers. The company’s use of the “fluctuating work week” method to calculate overtime pay violated the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act. This calculation method divides the employee’s regular weekly pay by the number of hours they work. GNC had been paying Chinese Overtime employees less than half of that amount, even though they worked over time.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the judgment that awarded the plaintiffs $1.7 million in a class action lawsuit against GNC. The employees claimed that the company failed to pay them overtime wages by state minimum wage laws. This case highlights the need for employers to pay employees at the state minimum wage. It is important to note that many companies are making use of this method to make their employees more money. This method does not apply to all companies, and the Chinese Overtime Pennsylvania lawsuit against GNC was dismissed for this very reason.
P.F. Chang
A Pennsylvania lawsuit filed by Chinese Overtime plaintiffs claims that P.F. Chang violated federal labor laws by failing to pay its servers the minimum wage for tipped and non-tipped work. Currently, tip credit laws are inconsistent across the country. While the case focuses on Pennsylvania servers, it may apply to all P.F. Chang’s servers nationwide. If so, it could lead to widespread repercussions for employees throughout the country.
Whether P.F. Chang violated federal labor laws is an issue of statutory law. In this case, servers performed side work that exceeded 20% of their workweek. Because P.F. Chang’s failed to pay the full federal minimum wage, they applied tips towards their minimum wage obligations but failed to pay their full federal hourly rate. This violation of federal labor law triggered a lawsuit for overtime compensation and double damages.
Pepsi’s fluctuating workweek method
A new class-action lawsuit filed in Massachusetts claims that Pepsi improperly calculated overtime pay by using an “asymmetrical” fluctuating workweek method. According to the lawsuit, Pepsi was wrongly calculating overtime pay for bulk customer representatives by dividing their weekly wages by the number of hours they worked, then dividing the result by two-thirds. This resulted in inconsistent pay, as plaintiffs in the case were not salaried.
Despite the legal ramifications of the method, the company’s recent Pennsylvania ruling may help Chinese Overtime workers file a class-action lawsuit against Pepsi. The company was found in violation of state minimum wage laws after a federal judge ruled that it owed employees a higher hourly rate than was paid. The lawsuit may lead to a new wave of litigation against employers who use the fluctuating workweek method.
GNC’s Chevalier case
Tawny L. Chevalier, a store manager, and senior store manager, filed a Pennsylvania class action lawsuit against General Nutrition Centers, Inc. (GNC). She earned a set weekly salary plus commissions and was paid overtime for hours she worked over forty hours a week. Despite the Pennsylvania law, GNC’s compensation practices allegedly violated the Chinese Overtime Act.
The case, which was filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, involved employees who worked at a GNC store. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the judgment, ruling that GNC did not err in using the fluctuating workweek method to calculate overtime pay. However, the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act requires employers to pay their employees at least 1.5 times their regular rate of pay for overtime work.
Pepsi’s practice of paying half-time overtime
Under federal law, employers must pay fluctuating workweek employees at least one-half their regular rate of pay for overtime hours. This practice, known as “Chinese overtime,” violates Pennsylvania’s minimum wage law. A recent Pennsylvania federal court ruled that this practice violates the state’s minimum wage law. If you believe that you are receiving half-time overtime pay, you may be entitled to damages.
