Lawsuit Claims the Merchant of Tennis Failed to Pay Proper Wages

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The Merchant of Tennis, Inc. faces a proposed class and collective action in which a former employee claims he and other workers were not paid proper wages.

According to the lawsuit out of California’s Central District Court, the sporting goods retailer’s employees were paid less than the statutory time-and-a-half overtime rate for every hour worked over 40 each week, required to undergo COVID-19 temperature checks while off the clock, and deprived of premium wages for missed meal and rest breaks.

The plaintiff says he worked at the defendant’s Ontario, California facility as a non-exempt production employee between April and June 2020. Although the plaintiff was paid overtime wages for hours worked in excess of eight in a day and 40 in a week, the defendant paid him at a rate lower than the statutory time-and-a-half overtime rate, the suit alleges. More specifically, the plaintiff claims that when his hourly rate of pay was $13.25, his overtime rate should have been $19.875, but he was instead paid at an overtime rate of $19.75.

The complaint adds that employees were required to undergo mandatory COVID-19 temperature checks at the beginning of each workday. According to the suit, however, these checks were performed off the clock, meaning workers are owed unpaid regular and overtime wages for time spent underdoing temperature checks.

Finally, the case claims employees were not provided with a second duty-free rest period for every second four-hour work period in accordance with California law. Despite failing to provide these statutory breaks, the defendant failed to pay the workers an hour of pay at their regular rate for each missed break, the suit alleges.

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