Lawsuit alleges Kentwood company owes OT, expected unpaid work
KENTWOOD, Mich. (WOOD) — Former employees of Kentwood-based Fifth Wheel Freight are suing the company, claiming they weren’t paid properly for overtime hours.
Attorneys for four former employees filed the lawsuit against Fifth Wheel Freight and its parent company, B & L Systems, LLC, on March 1, and have requested that other current and former employees may be allowed to join the lawsuit as a class action.
Fifth Wheel Freight is a third-party logistics and transportation company along 44th Street near the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Kentwood. It has more than 200 employees, the lawsuit says.
The company is looking to expand and recently received a $2 million Michigan Business Development Program grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation for a potential new West Michigan headquarters.
The former employees who filed the lawsuit worked in a variety of roles at Fifth Wheel Freight, including logistic consultant, sales consultant, senior logistics consultant and dedicated operations representative. They claim the logistics company misclassified them as exempt from getting paid time and a half for overtime hours, as required under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
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The lawsuit says the company frequently required them to work more than 40 hours a week without getting overtime pay, and were required to be on call 24/7.
Fifth Wheel Freight promised first shift employees working hours from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with an unpaid lunch break, the lawsuit says. But employees were instead expected to stay until at least 5:30 p.m., and often had to work during their lunch break, the lawsuit says.
Once first shift workers left, the lawsuit claims they were expected to still respond to phone calls and emails until second shift started at 9 p.m. The company required employees download an app on their personal cellphones that tracked when employees missed customer calls, the lawsuit claims. The attorneys argued the required app, which they say recorded all calls — including personal calls — that went through the employees’ office number and made a transcript of them, is a violation of the Privacy Act.
Kentwood company receives $2M grant for new HQ
One of the attorneys, Daniel Voelker, told News 8 partner Crain’s Grand Rapids Business the app also tracked the employee’s location with GPS, and the employees did not know how much the app was able to monitor. He told Crain’s the company tracked an employee’s location when he went to the gym during working hours and reprimanded him.
“Not that there’s anything wrong with telling your employee he needs to be working (during business hours),” he told Crain’s. “The point of that is this is how closely they are monitoring the movements and the whereabouts of their employees.”
According to the lawsuit, an employee who had been with the company since 2020 complained to the company about not getting overtime pay, and on Nov. 17, 2023, told a supervisor they needed help between first shift ending and second shift starting, “as they were being required to work after 5:30 P.M. without pay.”
The employee was fired on Feb. 12 of this year, the lawsuit says, going on to allege it was retaliation for his complaints. Just over a week later on Feb. 21, Fifth Wheel Freight Owner Brian Bennett announced employees could not work past 5 p.m. at the office, “as that would be illegal,” the lawsuit states.
In a statement to News 8, a Fifth Wheel Freight spokesperson denied the allegations.
“We are generally aware of the Complaint allegations and deny them,” the company said in the statement. “As a Company we do not address legal allegations or claims in the press, but through the appropriate legal process. Therefore, we have retained legal counsel to vigorously defend against what is alleged.”
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The former employee’s attorneys are asking for unpaid wages and overtime pay, attorneys fees and other damages. They have also asked that employees who worked for the company within the last three years be able to opt in to the lawsuit.
One of the attorneys representing the employees, Jonathan D. Karmel, told News 8 in an email that the legal team has heard from other employees.
“After the lawsuit was filed, we have been contacted by current and former employees of Fifth Wheel who have provided valuable information, including information confirming allegations in the lawsuit,” he wrote. “Workers covered by federal and state wage laws are required to be paid for all time worked including those workers who are entitled to overtime.”
There is no timeline for the case yet, he said, adding, “we are confident that the workers at Fifth Wheel will be compensated as required under the law.”
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