Memorabilia/Yearbook Maker Jostens Hit with Wage and Hour Lawsuit

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A proposed collective action alleges memorabilia maker and yearbook publisher Jostens has failed to pay hourly factory workers proper wages. 

The eight-page lawsuit claims the Bloomington, Minnesota-headquartered company has violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by excluding from workers’ pay time spent working prior to the start of their shifts. 

As a result, hourly paid Jostens factory workers were consistently not paid for pre-shift work time in which they performed “preparatory work activities” integral and indispensable to their jobs, the complaint alleges. 

Because hourly paid factory workers’ pre-shift work frequently occurred in workweeks in which they put in more than 40 hours, Jostens' failure to pay the individuals for this time amounts to a violation of the FLSA’s overtime regulations, which require employers to pay one and one half times an employee’s regular hourly rate for every hour worked past 40 in a week, the lawsuit says. 

The plaintiff, a Tennessee resident who worked at Jostens' Clarksville factory from March 2012 to June 2020, says hourly paid workers’ job titles included, but were not limited to, foil stamper, binder operator, machine operator and press operator. Factory workers regularly performed prep duties before the start of their shifts yet were not paid for these indispensable tasks, the suit claims. 

According to the complaint, Jostens knew or, alternatively, recklessly disregarded the possibility that hourly factory workers performed unpaid pre-shift work.

The defendant operates production factories in Clarksville, Tennessee; Denton, Texas; Eagan, Minnesota; Laurens, South Carolina; Mobile, Alabama; Norman, Oklahoma; Sedalia, Missouri; and Shelbyville, Tennessee, as well as several locations in Canada, the case states.

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