Pittsburgh, PA: A $20.9 million settlement has received final approval from a federal judge, ending 14 wage-and-hour class and collective action pending against Pennsylvania-based Rite Aid Corp., over allegations of unpaid overtime.
The lawsuits involved 4,700 Rite Aid stores with 7,426 plaintiffs as class members in 31 states -- about 4,000 of the potential class members have filed claims against the settlement fund. The employees stand to collect $1,800 on average, according to a report in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.
US District Judge John E. Jones III gave final approval of the settlement in the consolidated cases of Craig v. Rite Aid, which claims the drugstore chain improperly designated assistant store managers and co-managers as exempt employees not eligible for overtime pay.
The settlement puts to rest four years of litigation that included one of the cases, Knepper v. Rite Aid, going up to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit for a determination that collective action claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act and class action claims under state wage-and-hour laws can be brought in the same action, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported.
The settlement stipulates that class members will be paid based on the amount of hours worked during the applicable period. Plaintiffs' counsel will share in about $6.7 million in attorney fees and nearly $275,000 in costs. Filed in 2008, 12 firms worked on the lawsuit for a total of more than 14,000.
