Lawsuit Against Kohl’s Claims Assistant Managers Should Receive Overtime [UPDATE]
by Erin Shaak
Last Updated on May 8, 2018
Collins v. Kohl's Department Stores, Inc. et al
Filed: January 11, 2018 ◆§ 3:18cv65
Kohl’s Department Stores, Inc. and Kohl’s Corporation are facing a former employee’s class and collective action that claims its assistant store managers should have received overtime wages.
Connecticut
Case Updates
January 26, 2021 – Lawsuit Settled for $2.9 Million
Kohl’s Department Stores Inc. has agreed to settle the proposed class action detailed on this page for $2.9 million.
According to Law360, the deal provides nearly all of the $3 million Kohl’s assistant store managers alleged the retailer owed. The proposed settlement comes after a May 2020 mediation session, which preceded settlement discussions that continued into January 2021.
The deal is slated to cover a proposed collective of Kohl’s assistant store managers who were classified as exempt from overtime pay.
“Kohl’s does not oppose official approval of the settlement agreement reached between the parties,” court papers state, noting that Kohl’s denies the allegations in the lawsuit and maintains that it properly classified assistant store managers as exempt from overtime.
The plaintiffs’ unopposed motion for settlement approval, submitted in Wisconsin federal court on January 20, can be found here.
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Kohl’s Department Stores, Inc. and Kohl’s Corporation are facing a former employee’s class and collective action that claims its assistant store managers should have received overtime wages. The plaintiff says she worked for the defendants between June 2008 and October 2017 as an assistant store manager (ASM) and frequently put in 50 hours or more of work per week. According to the suit, the defendants paid ASMs a weekly salary but classified them as exempt from receiving overtime wages based on their managerial titles.
“While [the defendants] assign some management duties to them,” the complaint reads, “those duties are routine, and are closely and directly supervised by their superiors. ASMs are not given significant discretion to manage and their management work is not more important than their non-management work.”
The case argues that despite their titles, ASMs should be considered non-exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act and paid proper overtime wages.
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