Abercrombie Action
October 4, 2004
Los Angeles Business Journal by Amanda Bronstad
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge certified a class of 250 current and former California store managers of Abercrombie & Fitch Co. last month in a case seeking millions of dollar sin unpaid overtime.
Filed in July 2002, the suit claims that since 1998 the Ohio-based retailer has misclassified its California store managers in a way that made them exempt from overtime. Store managers spend more than half their time waiting on customers, stocking shelves and opening and closing cash registers, rather than supervising employees, the suit claims.
The lead plaintiff, Bryan Kimbell, was a store manager in Thousand Oaks from May 2001 to January 2002, the suit says. His lawyer, John Quisenberry, a partner at The Quisenberry Law Firm PC, said that about 50 store managers have contacted him.
He declined to say how much class members are seeking. But, on average, each member received a $40,000 salary and worked an extra 10 hours a week, he said. Given those estimates, for 250 class members, the suit could reach more than $3.7 million in unpaid overtime.
Reprinted with permission of the Los Angeles Business Journal.
