Supermarket chain Woodman’s has been accused of improperly “shaving” time off their workers’ paychecks, in a new collective action lawsuit.
On Dec. 13, attorneys with the firm of Walcheske & Luzi, of Chicago, filed suit in Chicago federal court against the Janesville, Wisconsin-based Woodman’s. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of named plaintiffs Terry Robertson and Roy Barnes, both of northwest suburban Carpentersville.
According to the lawsuit, Robertson and Barnes each work at the Woodman’s supermarket in Carpentersville.
James Walcheske
| Walcheske & Luzi
According to its website, Woodman’s operates stores across much of Wisconsin, as well as several stores in northern Illinois, including in suburban Buffalo Grove, Lakemoor, Carpentersville and North Aurora. The chain also operates a store in Rockford.
The lawsuit asserts Woodman’s requires workers to work certain days and hours based on a pre-determined written schedule. And the lawsuit claims Woodman’s tracks its employees’ work hours using an electronic punch clock system, which workers are required to punch each time they begin or end a work shift, or take breaks.
However, the lawsuit alleges Woodman’s does not rely entirely on the hours logged in the punch clock system when it ultimately calculates the hours its employees have worked, and pays its workers.
Rather, the lawsuit accuses Woodman’s of “rounding” its employees work hours to more closely correspond to the scheduled hours.
The plaintiffs assert this causes Woodman’s to effectively shortchange workers’ pay, by shaving off time actually worked.
“Each work day during the relevant time periods, and despite Defendant (Woodman’s) requiring or directing Plaintiffs and all other hourly-paid, non-exempt employees to ‘clock out’ via its electronic timekeeping system immediately after performing compensable work, Defendant’s pay policies in practice compensated said employees as of their normal and customary scheduled shift end times, as opposed to when compensable work actually ended each work day,” the lawsuit said.
Further, the lawsuit accuses Woodman’s of improperly using only workers’ regular rate of pay to calculate overtime pay, rather than including bonuses and other forms of compensation in those calculations.
The lawsuit asserts Woodman’s actions violate the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, as well as Illinois labor and wage laws.
The plaintiffs are seeking to expand the action to include a collective that includes all Woodman’s hourly employees who worked at any of the company’s supermarkets from Jan. 23 to Dec. 10, 2021, and whose pay may have been improperly “shaved” or “rounded.”
The plaintiffs are also seeking special “subclass” of workers at Woodman’s Illinois stores, for the claims under the Illinois laws.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, including “reimbursement for unpaid overtime wages and/or regular wages” allegedly not paid, and an equal amount in liquidated and statutory damages, under the federal and state laws, plus attorney fees.
The plaintiffs are being represented by attorneys James A. Walcheske, Scott S. Luzi and David M. Potteiger, of the Walcheske & Luzi firm.