Robinsons-May Sued in Overtime Dispute
A former Robinsons-May Inc. employee contends in a lawsuit that the retailer routinely violated California law by paying no overtime to low-level managers who typically worked 55-hour weeks mainly on manual chores such as tidying up and stocking shelves.
The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, seeks damages for more than 600 area sales managers. The chain’s 56 department stores typically have 10 to 13 such employees.
The suit is part of a national spate of actions alleging that big companies, seeking an edge at a time when competition has made price increases difficult, are cheating employees out of overtime pay.
Jeffrey Spencer, one of the Newport Beach lawyers who filed the class-action suit, estimated Tuesday that the disputed back wages total $18 million--a figure that could be tripled if the suit succeeds.
A spokeswoman for Robinsons-May’s parent, St. Louis-based May Department Stores Co., said the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation. In a statement, May said it is aware of federal and state labor laws and complies with both.
California overtime rules, which are tougher than federal standards, require that managers be paid overtime unless they spend less than 50% of their time on common tasks. During the three years at question in the lawsuit, state law also required that nonexempt employees be paid overtime for working more than eight hours a day or 40 hours a week.
Other retailers, including Mervyn’s and Macy’s, are battling similar suits in the state.
The latest suit, which was filed last week, contends the Robinsons-May managers spent most of their time ringing up sales, filling out credit card applications, checking inventory, stocking shelves, posting signs, processing deliveries and folding clothes.
The suit’s named plaintiff, Mark Gorman, says he worked up to 65 hours a week at the Arcadia store, averaging 55 hours. He also worked 12 days in a row at times, he said, and was called in routinely on days off to clean up. He said he spent only about 20% of his time on managerial tasks. “You would think they would pay a stock clerk or a janitor minimum wage to do that work,” said Spencer, the attorney.
A judge will decide later whether to grant the suit class-action status.
Gorman, 50, of Chatsworth, was fired July 14 from his $36,000-a-year job. His lawsuit, which had been in the works for months, was filed the next day. Gorman said he believes he was dismissed for protesting the store’s demands to perform non-managerial chores.
“The lack of humanity they show everybody drives me up a wall,” he said.
Gorman, who worked at Robinsons-May for a year, said he saw $6-an-hour workers reduced to tears because of job stress, yet he was asked to work them still harder.
Gorman, who spent years running his own small retail stores, protested the demands. But younger area sales managers were too terrified of being fired to speak up, he said.
Robinsons-May has 46 California stores, eight in Arizona and two in Nevada.
The suit includes area sales managers in Nevada and Arizona on grounds their laws are similar to California’s. It will continue on behalf of the California workers if the others are excluded, Spencer said.
