A RaceTrac employee is suing the convenience-store chain for allegedly not fully paying her and others for overtime hours.
The class-action lawsuit, filed Aug. 7 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, was first reported by C-Store Dive.
RaceTrac, Atlanta, failed to record all the overtime hours of the plaintiff, Jennifer Bruce, and like employees, or edited some of the overtime hours out of its time keeping system within weekly pay periods, the lawsuit alleges. This violates the Wages and Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which dictates that employees must not work for more than 40 hours in a week without receiving at least one and one-half times their regular rates of pay for the overtime hours.
- RaceTrac is No. 15 on CSP’s 2023 Top 202 ranking of convenience store chains by store count.
Bruce, the full-time, hourly-paid employee, claims she was scheduled to work 45 hours per week within weekly pay periods, but often worked far more than that. She was paid for only 45 hours of work time for such weeks, or only five hours of overtime compensation some weeks, according to the lawsuit. Bruce and employees in similar situations, which she estimates to be more than 200, complained to management, the lawsuit alleges.
RaceTrac willfully and with reckless disregard to FLSA requirements failed to pay Bruce and other employees “to save payroll costs and payroll taxes, all for which it has unjustly enriched itself and enjoyed ill-gained profits at their expense,” the lawsuit alleges.
Bruce is asking for a jury trial and to be awarded compensation for overtime hours, among other items. The class-action case can represent anyone who was employed by RaceTrac as an hourly-paid employee and who worked for the company in the United States any time within the last three years.
RaceTrac did not respond to CSP’s request for comment.
RaceTrac has more than 570 locations in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Tennessee. It also owns RaceWay c-stores.
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