Snyder’s-Lance Facing Unpaid Wage Class Action in South Carolina

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Snyder’s-Lance, Inc. and its distribution subsidiary are in the crosshairs of a proposed class action filed by two plaintiffs who say the snack food company owes unpaid wages as a result of misclassifying retail stocking and support services workers as independent contractors.

The proposed class consists of distributors tasked with restocking the defendants’ “central billing customers” in South Carolina. According to the lawsuit, Snyder’s-Lance “refuses to recognize the class as employees” despite the extensive level of “micro-managing” in which the company engages over the workers’ job duties.

While Snyder’s, which is sometimes better known as Snyder’s of Hanover, directly employs stocking clerks nationwide as part of its “direct distribution network,” it also employs thousands of stocking clerks who the company does not recognize as bona fide employees, the suit says. These workers, as opposed to those who work in the defendants’ national distribution network, are not afforded the protections of state labor law or the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to the lawsuit.

The named plaintiffs allege they work more than 45 hours per week for the defendants without being paid time-and-a-half overtime wages nor proper hourly minimum wages.