ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- An employee of SMG Group LLC, which owns Joe’s Kwik Marts, has filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the convenience-store company, alleging that she and managers like her were denied overtime pay in violation of state and federal wage laws and seeking back pay.
Jenny Shiptoski works as a store manager at Joe’s Kwik Marts locations in Scranton, Dunmore and White Haven, Pa., although she has not worked for the company since mid-January 2016, when she requested time off under the Family Medical Leave Act, according to court documents. While working, she spent almost all of her time performing nonmanagerial duties such as servicing customers, stocking shelves, working the cash register and cleaning the store.
She often worked more than 40 hours per week as a store manager, and she estimated that she regularly worked between 50 and 70 hours during a typical week and sometimes more, the documents said.
SMG Group did not pay Shiptoski any compensation for hours worked over 40 per week while she was employed as a store manager, she alleged.
During the past three years, the company has employed more than 100 store managers at its stores, and they regularly work more than 40 hours per week without compensation for additional hours, said the documents.
The “defendant has acted willfully and with reckless disregard of clearly applicable FLSA [Fair Labor Standards Act] provisions by failing to pay plaintiff and other [store managers] any compensation for hours worked over 40 during the workweek,” the lawsuit alleged.
Shiptoski is bringing her FLSA claim as a collective action on behalf of all store managers employed by SMG Group or any of its affiliated companies in the past three years.
By law, employers are not required to pay salaried employees overtime under most circumstances. The employer must show that the employee’s duties were significantly different from hourly employees to qualify for that exemption, Shiptoski’s attorney, Pete Winebrake of Dresher, told The Times-Tribune.
“One of the myths out there is that everyone who is paid a salary is not entitled to overtime. In fact, for a manager to be exempt, they have to perform managerial work,” he said. “We are alleging that, even though the plaintiff and other managers had the job title, they really performed the day-to-day work of hourly employees.”
Jeff Vaughan, a spokesperson for Allentown, Pa.-based SMG Group, declined to comment to the newspaper other than to say the company cares deeply for its employees.
Joe’s Kwik Marts, Dunmore, Pa., was established in 1932 as Dunmore Oil Co, providing fuel in northeastern Pennsylvania. A family owned and operated business, Joe’s Kwik Marts has 22 locations across the state.
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