I was, until recently, the Specialties Co-Manager at the Kokomo, Indiana Books-A-Million, and I believe that the hundreds of other co-managers need to be made aware of their legal rights to back-pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (which rights their states' law may provide as well—Indiana does).
As a Co-Managers, we were (and the rest still are) required to remain on the Books-A-Million (BAM) premises during our unpaid "lunch breaks" if there were no other managers in the store—a frequent occurrence, as our store was heavily understaffed.
We are entitled to payment for all of those unpaid lunch breaks.
The FLSA, and some state laws, require employers to pay for all employee hours controlled by an employer, such as, for example, requiring a co-manager to remain oncall on the premises during a lunch break when no other manager is in the store. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), through its Wage and Hour Division, conducts investigations into FLSA noncompliance, which can be initiated by employee complaints.
The FLSA provides for the recovery of unpaid wages in various ways:
1) The Wage and Hour Division may supervise payment of back wages;
2) The Secretary of Labor may sue for back wages AND for an equal amount for liquidated damages; and
3) An employee may file a private suit for back pay AND for an equal amount as liquidated damages AND for attorney's fees and court costs.
Unfortunately, I cannot say that BAM has yet admitted their obligation to pay, but if enough of us stand up, they won't be able to keep exploiting their employees. You can ask further questions and get the number of your local DOL Wage and Hour Division District Office by calling the DOL at the following toll-free number:
1-866-4-uswage
(1-866-487-9243)
Co-Managers can file complaints with the DOL. It would, of course, be a blatant violation of the law if BAM were to retaliate against anyone for complaining or asking questions-you could sue the pants off of BAM if that happened.
In addition, all current and future BAM Associates should be on alert if the time ever comes (resignation, termination) when you need your COBRA rights with regard to health insurance continuation. BAM didn't notify me of my health insurance continuation rights, as required by law, within 14 days-instead, they waited until I contacted them twice about it, delaying by a month and a half. And things are still up in the air, though I've notified them of my choice to continue my family's health insurance.
I wouldn't give them any opportunity to exploit you-it appears to me that you have to know your legal rights and assert them vigorously to get BAM to pay attention to them. When I first started, the Managers even told me that the Family and Medical Leave Act (FLMA) didn't apply to BAM, although it obviously does, as I discovered in BAM's own policy documents on the internal web site. Later, I was actually told that, yes, BAM is covered by the FMLA but, shrug, they don't want to pay any more than they HAVE to. Which means, if you HAVE to work for them, keep your wits about you.
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