ADRIAN, Mich. -- Three former employees of two Adrian, Mich., gas stations and convenience stores are suing a corporation they accuse of cheating them out of overtime pay in the past two years, reported the Adrian Daily Telegram.
A lawsuit filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court in Detroit claims Fusion Oil Inc. paid the three former employees for 40 hours a week or less while they regularly worked more than 40 hours. The suit claims the company also illegally deducted cash register shortages and driveoff losses from their wages.
Among other stations, Flat Rock, Mich.-based Fusion Oil operates two Sunoco stations and stores in Adrian.
Attorney Megan Bonanni said she was shocked by the treatment her clients described receiving while working for Fusion Oil. She said the company headed by Hassan Harajli owns and operates 30 or more stations in Michigan and other states through a variety of corporations.
I have reason to believe these unfair pay practices are taking place at every station he owns, Bonanni, a member of a labor law specialist firm, Pitt, McGehee, Mirer, Palmer & Rivers, told the newspaper. I hope that we can stop these practices through this action."
Bonanni represents former Fusion Oil employees Dawn Isaacson of Palmyra, Mich.; Christine Sell of Adrian; and Derek Laratta of Adrian, who all left the company within a six-month period last year, the report said. The three had similar complaints of starting their employment by working three to five days without pay as on-the-job training, Bonanni said. They were each hired as a cashier and station manager although none of them supervised other employers, she said.
Isaacson, Sell and Laratta claim they were given pay stubs in envelopes with cash that did not record the actual number of hours they worked, said the report. The suit claims the three plaintiffs and similarly situated employees were not paid overtime at the rate of one and one-half their regular wages, the newspaper added. And deductions were routinely made from their pay to balance inventory and cash register shortages, the suit claims, which lowered their pay below the minimum wage.
The suit seeks unpaid minimum wages and overtime wages the three are owed from their employment and an equal amount in damages, the report said.
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