Federal Judge Upholds Decision to Certify Multi-State Collective Action Against Giant Eagle
A federal district judge today overruled Giant Eagle’s objections to a report and recommendation granting conditional certification of a multi-state collective action seeking the recovery of unpaid overtime on behalf of Team Leaders and Senior Team Leaders who worked at Giant Eagle and GetGo stores. GetGo is owned and operated by Giant Eagle. In upholding the report and recommendation, Judge Robert Colville found that Magistrate Judge Cynthia Eddy – who authored the report – did not commit clear error in finding that the Plaintiffs had submitted sufficient evidence to demonstrate that Team Leaders and Senior Team Leaders were similarly situated for purposes of sending notice of the lawsuit to other Team Leaders and Senior Team Leaders for the purpose of letting them join the case. The Team Leaders and Senior Team Leaders allege that Giant Eagle and GetGo violated federal and state law by misclassifying them as exempt from overtime compensation. Testimony from several former Team Leaders and Senior Team Leaders demonstrated that they were required to work more than 40 hours a week and spent the majority of their time on non-exempt tasks such as customer service, moving goods, setting up displays and cleaning the store. Giant Eagle owns and operates more than 200 stores across Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Indiana, and West Virginia. A copy of Judge Colville’s decision can be found here.
If you have worked as a Team Leader or Senior Team Leader at Giant Eagle and/or GetGo at any time between 2015 and the present and would like more information about the case, please call Conway Legal at (215) 278-4782.