LAKELAND, Fla. — A trio of employees from around the southeast filed a lawsuit against Publix, claiming the grocery chain failed to pay some employees for all of the overtime hours worked.
Lawyers for Morgan & Morgan and Shavitz Law Group filed a lawsuit in a federal court based in Tampa on Thursday.
“If they have knowledge and they’re aware that this work is happening, off the clock, they need to pay it. They can't just hide their head in the sand and say, oh we didn’t know about it because it wasn’t on a time sheet or time clock it,” said Ryan Morgan, lawyer at Morgan & Morgan.
The plaintiffs are all assistant department managers in Publix stores located in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee.
According to the lawsuit, Publix allegedly required assistant department managers to work overtime hours, did not pay them for all hours worked, including pre- and post-shift work off-the-clock required by the company, did not pay for unpaid meal breaks and any time spent outside of Publix stores "communicating with supervisors and co-workers, and other directives, off-the-clock."
“This is something we see in our cases across the country, of off the clock work. Especially with being more and more connected every single day with our devices,” said Morgan.
This is a collective action lawsuit, meaning any affected unpaid Publix assistant department managers can join in.
“We’re anticipating that this is going to end up being probably hundreds, if not thousands of people when it’s all said and done, that we’re representing,” said Andrew Frisch, lawyer at Morgan & Morgan.
Publix said it doesn't comment on pending litigation, but in this case, the company said in a statement it wanted 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."
The department of Consumer and Veterans Services in Hillsborough County saw 103 wage theft cases last year. The manager of consumer protection advises if you believe you have been wrongly denied your wages, to document and report it sooner rather than later.
“It’s important to have the facts, to have something that’s showing what actually happened. Sometimes there might be an arrangement, maybe it's verbal. If it’s not in writing, it’s less provable," said Eric Olsen, Manager of Hillsborough County Consumer Protection. "If there are text messages, if there’s something, we’ll take whatever we can get. We’ll begin an investigation, we contact the other party and try to work to resolve it,” he said.
