Southeast Title of the Suncoast Knocked with Wage Theft Lawsuit

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

An individual formerly employed by Southeast Title of the Suncoast, Inc. as a title processor and closer has filed a proposed wage theft class action against the company and its owner in Florida court. The plaintiff claims she and similarly situated workers were never provided with a way to keep track of their work time and were paid the same amount every Friday regardless of whether they worked more than 40 hours that week. This policy, the plaintiff alleges, spoke to the work culture crafted by the Southeast Title:

“[The defendants] created a work culture that revolved around ‘staying until the job was finished’,” the complaint claims. “If an employee left right at their scheduled time of 5:00 pm while there was still work to be done, that employee would be ostracized by management the next day.”

On top of alleged overtime wage violations, the plaintiff additionally claims she was never paid at all for working extra days after calling out for two sick days. The plaintiff went to management to discuss this and other apparent wage problems, but was alleged greeted with inaction and, eventually, hostility. After a period in which the defendant reportedly hired several family members with no relevant job experience, the plaintiff claims her superiors’ attitude toward her noticeably changed:

“During the period of January 2016 until her termination in June 2016, [the defendants] became very passive aggressive towards [the plaintiff],” court papers allege. “[The individual defendant] brought up in a disapproving manner the fact that she complaint about unpaid overtime multiple times. He would single her out and snidely ask ‘how many hours of overtime are you going to charge me this week?’”