Worker Sues Ulta Beauty in California Over Alleged Off-the-Clock Security Checks

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According to a proposed class action, Ulta Beauty, Inc. shorts employees on wages in part by subjecting them to mandatory security checks after they clock out but before they can leave the store.

The plaintiff claims the beauty products retailer requires all employees leaving the premises to clock out at the back of the store and then undergo a bag check and pat down at the front of the store before being permitted to exit. These mandatory security checks, the case alleges, can take five minutes or more and amount to unpaid, off-the-clock work. According to the lawsuit, which was recently removed to federal court in California, employees are also robbed of full uninterrupted meal and rest breaks as a result of the security check policy.

Moreover, the lawsuit claims Ulta stores are chronically understaffed in order to meet a strict labor budget. As a result, employees, the case says, are often unable to take statutory breaks and are not properly compensated for missed meal and rest time. Some workers, the lawsuit goes on, are “cut” from the schedule even after calling in and being told that their services are needed, which, according to the lawsuit, is what “triggers the need for reporting time pay.”

“Accordingly,” the complaint reads, “Ulta Beauty conscripted the time of these Class Members, placing them under its control, but failed to compensate them for that time.”

No stranger to labor litigation, Ulta has recently been named in at least three other wage and hour lawsuits in California.