Retail clerks’ FLSA suit over overtime pay reinstated

A group of former retail clerks for a high-end fashion retailer provided enough specificity to claim their employer had violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by having them work more than 40 hours per week, and thus allege they were entitled to overtime pay, a federal appeals court said Friday, in overturning a lower court and reinstating their FLSA lawsuit.

Thirteen former employees of Dover Street Market New York LLC had worked as an “assistant floor manager,” “floor manager” or “sales manager” for a specific period of time, although their actual duties were non-managerial, according to the ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York in Gabriel Herrera, et al. v. Comme Des Garcons, Ltd., Dover Street Market New York LLC, Elai Beuther, James Gilchrist.

Their complaint stated that in addition to working more than four to five hours in excess of the 40 hours per week of their ostensible schedule, they also frequently worked additional hours, including on “post-work” duties such as drafting and sending end-of-day reports and messaging clients, and during “seasonal changeover of merchandise” periods.

The plaintiffs filed suit in U.S. District Court in New York, seeking class certification. The district court dismissed the case, stating the plaintiffs had not been specific enough as to how many hours over 40 they worked each week.

The court was overturned by a three-judge appeals court panel. The complaint “is sufficiently specific to state an overtime claim under the FLSA. In arriving at a contrary conclusion, the District Court misapplied the standard established” by the appeals court in previous cases “and imposed an unduly high pleading bar.”

The complaint alleges that the plaintiffs regularly worked between 43.75 and 45 hours per regular week. “That allegation itself gets us” beyond 40 hours of work a week, the ruling said, in vacating the lower court’s ruling and remanding the case for further proceedings.

Attorneys in the case did not respond to requests for comment.

The U.S. Department of Labor is proposing increasing the threshold below which employers must pay their salaried workers overtime, but experts say its implementation is unlikely to proceed smoothly.