Judge Rejects 17 Nordstrom Workers’ Suits : * Labor: But class-action case alleging that the employees were underpaid remains alive.
Minimum-wage claims by 17 of 18 Nordstrom employees who sued the clothing retailer have been rejected, but a judge refused to dismiss the class-action case.
Lawyers for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which represented Nordstrom employees at five Seattle-area stores before a decertification election last summer, may find another worker to support the class-action lawsuit, King County Superior Court Judge William Downing ruled late last week.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. Feb. 24, 1992 For the Record
Los Angeles Times Monday February 24, 1992 Home Edition Business Part D Page 2 Column 6 Financial Desk 2 inches; 55 words Type of Material: Correction
Nordstrom lawsuit--Due to an error by the Associated Press, an article Feb. 17 incorrectly reported that a judge in Seattle had dismissed minimum-wage claims by 17 employees of Nordstrom who sued the retailer, alleging that they were not paid for some work they performed for the clothing retailer. In fact, the judge said he would deny Nordstrom’s request that he throw out the workers’ claims.
The lawsuit accuses Nordstrom of pressuring employees in the past six years to work without pay outside their normal hours on chores like taking inventory, stocking shelves, making deliveries, attending company meetings and writing thank-you notes to customers.
The 18 workers cited in the union’s case worked at outlets in California, Hawaii, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington state. Nordstrom also has outlets in Utah, northern Virginia and the Chicago area.
Downing ruled that Nordstrom lawyers had shown all but one worker in Washington received far more than the minimum wage.
“We were pleased (the judge) granted summary judgment on the 17 because it reflects on the merits of the claim,” said Nordstrom lawyer Jim Robart.
Union lawyer James Webster said the case could still proceed because of other workers he said had been paid inadequately.
Nordstrom, which has about 30,000 employees, cut earnings by $15 million in the last quarter of 1989 to establish a reserve for unpaid-compensation claims.
Subsequently, about $3 million was paid to about 4,000 out-of-state workers who accepted settlement offers based on length of service or gave an account of work for which they said they were not paid.
The suit, certified as a class action in January, 1991, initially sought more than $300 million in back pay for as many as 300,000 people. Webster said he expected about 100,000 past and present Nordstrom workers would wind up being covered.
