Lawsuit Claims Target Failed to Pay Leaders on Duty for On-Call Meal Breaks

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A former Target employee has filed a proposed class and collective action lawsuit over the retailer’s alleged policy of automatically deducting 30 minutes’ worth of wages for meal breaks during which the plaintiff claims he was often forced to work.

The plaintiff says he worked in several different positions at defendant Target Corporation’s Yukon, Oklahoma location and, in May 2016, began working periodically as the store’s “leader on duty.” In essence, the leader on duty, the case explains, is the highest-ranked employee at any given Target location and is required to be on call at all times to handle “whatever was necessary to run the store or address problems.”

Despite being “on duty” at all times, the plaintiff had 30 minutes’ worth of pay cut from his wages each day for supposed meal breaks that he was often unable to take, the case says. The man claims he is owed unpaid wages, including time-and-a-half overtime pay, for the meal breaks during which he worked as a leader on duty.

According to the lawsuit, Target’s policy of deducting break time for leaders on duty is company-wide and extends to many other retail locations.

“Target has hundreds of thousands of employees who work at their stores throughout the United States,” the complaint reads, “including hourly employees who, like Plaintiff, were subjected to the policy of non-payment of wages, wherein they worked in the Leader on Duty capacity and were on duty at all times while in that capacity and nevertheless had 30 minute meal breaks deducted from their pay while they remained on duty during these illusory meal breaks.”

The case seeks to cover any hourly Target employee who, since October 9, 2016, had 30 minutes of pay deducted from their wages for meal breaks while working as a leader on duty.