Ex-Trader Joe’s Employee Alleges Firing Was Racially Motivated, Employees Not Paid On Time

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A former New York Trader Joe’s employee alleges in a proposed class action that he and similarly situated workers were improperly paid on a biweekly basis instead of each week, and that his firing was racially motivated.

According to the 11-page case, the New York Labor Law (NYLL) stipulates that manual workers, i.e., those who spend more than 25 percent of their time performing physical labor, must be paid within seven calendar days after the end of the week in which they earned the wages.

The lawsuit attests that by paying hourly employees on a biweekly basis, Trader Joe’s has failed to provide them with timely wages in accordance with New York law.

The plaintiff, who worked at a 32^nd Street, New York Trader Joe’s between December 2019 and February 2022, also brings an individual claim against the grocery store chain for allegedly firing him on the basis of his race and terminating his employment “without justification.”

According to the complaint, Trader Joe’s operates 35 grocery stores in New York at which it employs hourly paid crew members. Per the suit, crew members are responsible for tasks that include operating the cash register, bagging groceries, stocking shelves, merchandising and maintaining the store’s cleanliness. The lawsuit says that all of these duties require long periods of standing, walking, lifting, carrying and bending and as such constitute manual labor as defined by the NYLL.

The case contends that Trader Joe’s was required to pay crew members on a weekly basis but instead paid them biweekly as a matter of policy. As a result, the suit says, the workers were underpaid during each pay period given they did not timely receive all wages earned.

“Plaintiff and Class Members are manual workers who depend upon their wages for sustenance and suffer harm that is particularly acute when their wages are delayed, and they are temporarily deprived of their earned wages,” the complaint alleges.

The plaintiff, an African-American male, alleges individually that he was unlawfully terminated based on his race. According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff’s white manager repeatedly called him “brown sugar” and terminated the man’s employment on February 28, purportedly because the plaintiff “attempted to prevent a customer from shoplifting at the store.” The case claims that two non-African-American employees had engaged in comparable conduct when they “were involved in an altercation with a customer because the customer refused to comply with the store’s mask policy” yet were not disciplined or terminated by the plaintiff’s manager.

The case alleges that the plaintiff was subjected to disparate treatment by his manager on account of his race.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone currently or formerly employed by Trader Joe’s as an hourly paid crew member in New York at any time within the past six years and until the date of judgment in the case.

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