PacSun Under Fire for Allegations of Wage Theft

A favorite retailer the latest to face claims of wage theft

In the retail industry, some companies use a practice known as on-call scheduling to approve an employee coming to work only with phone call approval from a manager the same day. In September 2015, a former employee of PacSun in Los Angeles filed a wage theft lawsuit against the nationwide retailer, arguing the practice led to strange scheduling and lost wages.

Retailers must be able to plan ahead to have enough employees on a retail floor to help shoppers, but it’s also in the best interests of the employer to have as few employees on the floor as possible. In an attempt to avoid paying for unnecessary help, some retailers use other methods like unpredictable and varying schedules. One of the greatest challenges of this behavior from the employee perspective is that the worker cannot plan out his or her day when “on call” scheduling is used. Some employees might also be counting on the wages from that workday, which becomes all the more problematic if they have to schedule childcare just in case. These issues are coming to a head in courtrooms across the country as workers and their wage theft attorneys. Being unable to plan deprives workers of the opportunity to work under fair scheduling practices.

The company is alleged to have violated an existing California Wage Order known as 7-2001. This requires that when an employee reports to work, but does not actually complete work after reporting for duty, the company pays half of the scheduled work pay for the day.

The employee in question worked “on call” hours between August and December of 2011. During the time alleged in the complaint, the employee was scheduled to work an on-call shift during certain days, but she also was asked to call in on other days when she was not on the work schedule. She was asked to call management about an hour before a shift would start to find out if she was needed. According to the substance of her complaint, those requests are not different from a typical shift, but PacSun used this practice to misclassify employees so that the retailer could avoid paying reporting time.

Labor practices have come under fire in New York City and around the country as more employees come forward and report concerns of wage theft. An unknowing employee may not be aware of his or her rights. If you suspect your employer has committed wage theft, contact the experienced team of New York wage theft attorneys at Hepworth, Gershabum & Roth, PLLC to have your case evaluated today by calling 212-545-1199 or contact us online.