New Jersey Employment Attorneys Blog
New Brunswick, N.J., November 1, 2016 – Brent Carter, Robert Haynes and Kenneth Cuoco, filed a class action lawsuit in Middlesex County Superior Court against Bed Bath & Beyond, Inc. (BBB) on behalf of themselves and all similarly situated current and former employees who worked in BBB stores located in New Jersey to recover for BBB’s failure to pay overtime wages in violation of The New Jersey Wage and Hour Law (NJWHL). The proposed Class consists of all persons employed by Defendant BBB in New Jersey who worked as either a Department Manager, Customer Service Representative, or Assistant Store Manager at any time two years prior to the filing of the lawsuit who worked over 40 hours per week and were not paid overtime pay at a rate of one and one-half times their regular rate for hours worked more than 40 hours during a workweek.
Carter, Haynes and Cuoco specifically complain that rather than Defendant BBB paying Plaintiffs and all other members of the proposed Class overtime pay at a rate of one and one-half times their regular rate for hours worked in excess of 40 hours during a workweek as required by the NJWHL, BBB instead unlawfully paid them and proposed Class members overtime pay based on a calculation which divided an employee’s base weekly salary by all hours worked in the week divided by 2 multiplied by all hours worked over 40 in the week. The Complaint alleges that BBB unlawfully applied this Fluctuating OT formula to avoid paying their Department Managers, Customer Service Representatives and Assistant Store Managers overtime compensation at a rate required by law. Indeed, the Complaint goes on to claim that by using its Fluctuating OT formula, Defendant BBB often paid Class members for hours worked over 40 hours in a week less than the State’s mandated minimum wage rate.
Plaintiffs’ attorney, Stephan T. Mashel, Esquire of the law firm of Mashel Law, L.L.C., located in Marlboro Township, New Jersey, said that his clients seek class certification and an award of money damages because BBB unjustly enriched itself by failing to pay its workers overtime pay at the legal overtime pay rate required under state law. As Mashel explains, “The overtime wage rate requirements contained in New Jersey’s Wage and Hour Laws benefits workers by dissuading employers from forcing employees to work excessively long hours. Such a disincentive has the salutary effect of promoting the health and quality of life of workers who value leisure and family time. Conversely, these same overtime pay requirements afford workers the right to earn extra pay at a time when lower and middle class workers wages have remained stubbornly stagnant. BBB used its Fluctuating OT formula to defeat these public policy goals.”
If you feel your employer has violated The New Jersey Wage and Hour Law, call the attorneys at Mashel Law (732) 536-6161 or fill out the contact form on this page for immediate help. At Mashel Law, located in Marlboro, New Jersey, we are dedicated to protecting the rights of employees.