Zara Retailer Lawsuit for Owed Wages Successfully Moves Forward
The class and collective action filed by Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP against the fashion retailer, Zara,continues to successfully move forward after the Court denied Defendant’s motion to dismiss. The Court also pointed out that the allegations in the lawsuit, such as untimely payment claims, are tangible, monetary harms that “readily qualify as concrete injuries…” which Defendants opposed.
The lawsuit, which was filed in 2020, aims to recover overtime pay and other damages for alleged violations by the retailer under New York Labor Law (“NYLL”) and the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). Employees that may be affected by this lawsuit include hourly positions that are typically eligible for overtime pay such as cashiers, sales associates and stock associates who currently work or have worked for Zara. Hourly employees are paid an hourly rate plus commissions, accordingly their overtime rate should have included their commissions earned as required by the FLSA and NYLL. However, the retailer allegedly failed to include their commissions when calculating their overtime when these hourly employees worked over 40 hours per week. The lawsuit also claims that the company violated the NYLL by paying its New York hourly workers bi-weekly basis when NY law requires that all manual laborers, such as retail employees, be paid their wages no later than seven days after the last day of the week in which their wages were earned. The chain store also required its hourly workers in New York to work shifts that lasted longer than 10 hours. If an hourly worker in New York completes a shift of over 10 hours, they must be given “spread of hours” pay, which allows the employee to receive an extra hour of pay at the applicable minimum wage rate. This requirement, however, was not met by the retailer as alleged in the compliant.
The court’s recent decision to dismiss Defendant’s motion is a big win for this case. The allegations in this lawsuit are not uncommon in the retail industry and other hourly workers in New York City. If any of these claims sound like something you’ve experienced in the workplace, you may be owed wages. Give our employment law firm, Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP a call for a free and confidential consultation at (212)300-0375. You can also view the court’s decision here.