Publix accused of employee wage theft in federal class-action lawsuit. What to know
Publix, the dominant supermarket chain in Florida and the southeastern United States, is accused of not paying several middle managers for work the company forced them to do off the clock, according to a federal lawsuit filed Thursday in Tampa.
A failure to pay employees for work done would mean the nation’s seventh largest grocer committed a form of wage theft and violated the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The lawsuit proposes a collective action to include all non-exempt, hourly paid assistant department managers who worked over 40 hours in a workweek in a Publix store after Oct. 18, 2020.
A joint statement from Morgan & Morgan’s Ryan Morgan and Shavitz Law Group’s Gregg Shavitz said:
“Every year, according to the Economic Policy Institute, American workers lose as much as $50 billion per year to wage theft. Our clients have experienced something many workers face as we all become reachable on our phones at any time of day or night — that companies expect employees to be in constant communication but fail to track this time worked. It’s unacceptable to force hourly workers to work outside of their shifts and to not pay workers for their time.
“We believe that the assistant department managers’ allegations only scratch the surface of Publix off-the-clock conditions,” the statement continued. “We will work to uncover all the evidence about the extent of these alleged harmful practices in order to hold Publix accountable and recover every possible dollar of these workers’ rightfully earned money.”
An email from Publix Director of Communications Maria Brous said the company’s standard operating procedure is to refrain from comment on pending litigation, “However, due to the nature of the claims involved we find it necessary to respond.
“As an associate-owned company, we are proud to provide our associates with a comprehensive benefits package – including company ownership – in addition to paying our associates in accordance with the law. We take these claims seriously and will respond appropriately.”
Did Publix infringe on workers’ off-time without pay?
The plaintiffs — Weeki Wachee’s Brandy Moore; Douglasville, Georgia’s Caitlin Throckmorton; and Calhoun, Tennessee’s Christopher Roberts — all were assistant department managers at Publix stores.
The lawsuit says assistant department managers often worked in the store before and after shifts by “walking the department with supervisors, cleaning, organizing, stocking, and assisting customers.” Meal breaks, unpaid time away from work, were “routinely interrupted ... to handle work matters including responding to co-workers or supervisors’ inquiries via text or phone, assisting customers, and/or completing paperwork and reports.”
Away from the store, the lawsuit alleges, the managers fielded phone calls and exchanged texts while handling situations related to “scheduling, staffing, operations, goods and supplies, and customers.”
The lawsuit accuses Publix of a deficiency commonly cited by U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour investigators who find a company has shorted workers on pay.
Publix “also failed to maintain a timekeeping system to track time worked outside of its stores despite its employees regularly working outside of its stores,” the lawsuit said.
