On Tuesday, employees of Wakefern Food Corp. filed a class action lawsuit in the Southern District of New York against their employer alleging it failed to pay employees engaged in manual work on a weekly basis pursuant to New York Labor Law.
According to the complaint, Wakefern Food is a New Jersey corporation that operates subsidiary chains of grocery stores in New York including ShopRite and Price Rite. The complaint goes on to state the subsidiary chains employ “hundreds, if not thousands, of manual workers” in New York that are paid on a bi-weekly basis.
The named plaintiff in the complaint is Jeanne Grant who, according to the complaint, was employed at the defendant’s Cronton, New York ShopRite location as a cashier from 2015-2020. Grant alleges that at least 25% of her job responsibilities consisted of manual labor and she was paid every other week for the entirety of her employment with the defendant.
The complaint purports that, under New York Labor Law, employers are required to pay their manual workers on a weekly basis unless they receive an express authorization to pay on a semi-monthly basis from the New York State Department of Labor Commissioner. The complaint further alleges that Wakefern Foods has not received such authorization.
The plaintiff seeks class certification of all persons who engaged in manual work while employed by the defendant. The single claim stated in the complaint is failure to pay timely wages under New York Labor Law § 191 and the plaintiffs request liquidated damages, interest and attorneys fees for defendants’ violation of the law. The employees of Wakefern Food are represented by Bursor & Fisher, P.A.
