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Unfair Employment Practices
Wage and hour litigation concerns the method and manner of compensation and employment conditions. Abbey Spanier has extensive experience in representing current and former employees of large corporations who have been denied compensation in violation of the federal and state labor laws. Unfair employment cases include class actions for:
- Misclassification of employees as exempt or as independent contractors
- Failure to pay otherwise exempt employees on a salary basis
- "Off-the-clock" and regular rate cases
- Donning and doffing activities
- Unpaid on-duty meal periods
- Denied reimbursements
- Miscalculated commissions and bonuses
- Tip pooling
Abbey Spanier is a lead counsel in Braun and Hummel v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Case Nos. 3127 and 3757 (Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County). Plaintiffs in this class action on behalf of 186,000 current and former hourly employees obtained a $78 million jury verdict against Wal-Mart and an express jury finding that Wal-Mart did not act in good faith in failing to pay class members for missed rest and rest breaks and off the clock work. Plaintiffs are seeking an additional $74 million in liquidated damages and interest.
In Iliadis, et al. v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Case No. A-69-06 (May 31, 2007 Supreme Court New Jersey), Abbey Spanier prevailed in its quest to overturn the trial court's refusal to certify a class of 72,000 current and former Wal-Mart employees who were forced to work off the clock and miss meal breaks. The New Jersey Supreme Court reversed the trial court and the Appellate Division and remanded the case for entry of an order certifying the class, stating:
'When the organization of a modern society, such as ours affords the possibility of illegal behavior accompanied by widespread, diffuse consequences, some procedural means must exist to remedy – or at least to deter – that conduct.' Here, the class action is just such a procedural device. By equalizing adversaries, we provide access to the courts for small claimants. By denying shelter to an alleged wrongdoing defendant, we deter similar transgressions against an otherwise vulnerable class – 72,000 hourly paid retail workers purportedly harmed by their corporate employer's uniform misconduct. Individually, the aggrieved Wal-Mart employees lack the strength in terms of resources and motivation to assert their grievances in court. Collectively, as a class, they are able to pursue their claims. (Citation omitted).
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