Payless ShoeSource Hit with FCRA, Rest Break Lawsuit in California

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Payless ShoeSource, Inc. faces a proposed class action lawsuit filed over alleged violations of both the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and California’s Labor Code.

The lawsuit, which was filed in mid-November and has been removed from superior to district court, alleges that Payless routinely obtains background checks as part of its hiring process without providing job applicants with proper disclosures or obtaining authorization. Payless, according to the suit, required the plaintiff to fill out during her application for employment a background check disclosure and authorization form that contained unlawful “extraneous and superfluous language.” The FCRA, the suit says, requires such disclosures to consist solely of the disclosure and be free of any additional information that may distract a job applicant.

With regard to the alleged labor code abuses, the lawsuit says the plaintiff and putative class members were not provided with rest breaks of at least 10 minutes for each four-hour work period. Payless allegedly failed altogether to schedule rest periods as part of employees’ shifts. Moreover, the suit claims Payless stores were “chronically understaffed,” which imposed so much work on each employee that taking a break was unlikely during any shift.