Lawsuit Claims GlobalTranz Enterprises Misclassified Employees, Denied Proper Overtime Pay

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GlobalTranz Enterprises, LLC faces a proposed collective action that alleges the freight brokerage firm unlawfully misclassified certain workers as exempt from receiving overtime wages, and failed to properly pay them for every hour worked.

The suit’s two plaintiffs claim that although the defendant paid logistics representatives proper time-and-a-half overtime prior to April 2019, the workers were thereafter reclassified as exempt from federal and state overtime laws despite there being no changes to their duties or job expectations. The unlawful reclassification has resulted in employees not being paid proper overtime wages for hours worked in excess of 40 each week, particularly for hours spent “on-call,” the case argues.

GlobalTranz is a freight brokerage company specializing in LTL (less-than-truckload), full truckload, expedited and managed transportation solutions, the lawsuit explains. Per the case, the defendant, who operates in Arizona, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Illinois, California and Utah, employs logistics representatives, account managers, carrier sales representatives, account coordinators, LTL representatives and workers in similar positions whose responsibilities include non-OT-exempt work, such as coordinating and scheduling pick-ups and delivery appointments for customers and tracking and tracing shipments.

The case claims the defendant reclassified members of the proposed collective in April 2019 from hourly, non-exempt status to salaried, exempt status despite there being no changes in the workers’ duties or expectations. Since the reclassification, workers have not been paid for their overtime hours, including for mandatory on-call shifts during which the employees are required to respond to emails and phone calls 24-hours a day, the suit relays.

Despite its legal obligation to do so, the defendant has failed to track workers’ overtime hours and pay them proper time-and-a-half wages for such, according to the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs, who worked for GlobalTranz Enterprises until March 2020, say they typically put in between 45 to 50 hours per week without receiving proper overtime wages. When they and their co-workers raised concerns with the defendant’s management over their workloads and unpaid hours, their complaints were “generally dismissed,” the suit says.

The lawsuit adds that GlobalTranz Enterprises has faced previous class action litigation in which the company was accused of overtime violations. According to Law360, the company paid $180,000 in 2018 to settle a misclassification suit after it paid $640,000 the year prior to settle a collective action over similar claims.

The current lawsuit looks to represent anyone who worked for the defendant as a logistics representative, inside sales—account manager, carrier sales representative, account coordinator, LTL representative or a similar job title anywhere in the U.S. since April 2019.

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