Starbucks to Pay Workers $3 Million Class Action Settlement Over Missed Breaks

By Amanda Antell

On May 13, 2013, Starbucks agreed to pay $3 million to resolve a class action lawsuit accusing the company of several wage and hour violations, including denying employees required meal breaks, issuing inaccurate wage statements, and preventing employees from collecting their accurate payments.

The Starbucks wage settlement will end a five-year-long class action lawsuit from Starbucks workers who stated they were denied off-duty breaks because the coffeehouse was too busy and understaffed, despite a company policy mandating they take breaks.

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Judge Certifies Time Warner Wage & Hour Class Action Lawsuit

By Robert J. Boumis

Lawsuits alleging that employers have failed to compensate employees for their work and overtime have been on the rise. Since the year 2000, the number of wage-and-hour lawsuits filed has increased by more than 400 percent. Some blame the economy, saying that the poor economy is causing employers to look for ways to cut expenses, sometimes skirting the law in the process. However, media giant Time Warner is now among the ranks of large, recognizable companies being sued for allegedly failing to compensate their employees.

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McDonald's Hit with Time-Shaving, Overtime Class Action Lawsuit

By Jessica Tyner

It sounds pretty simple: an employee should get paid for working overtime. However, there are hundreds of unpaid overtime lawsuits popping up around the country. The latest accusation is that McDonalds is tampering with shift records in an effort to cut costs. According to a recently filed class action lawsuit, more than 12 McDonald’s restaurants -- all owned by the same person in New York -- have shaved hours off of employees’ time cards.

Plaintiff Jeffrey Schuyler is at the helm of the New York McDonald’s unpaid overtime lawsuits. Behind him are 500 employees all targeting Ralph Crawford, a successful McDonald’s franchise owner. A red flag was triggered when Crawford began requesting alarmingly high time punch changes. Suddenly, hundreds of employees’ overtime hours were changed to eight-hour shifts. However, Crawford might not be the only one to blame in this doctored time sheet lawsuit.

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Plaintiff in Unum Claim Denial Lawsuit Wins Appeal

By Anne Bucher

Many Americans rely on disability insurance to protect them in the event they are catastrophically injured or contract a disease that prevents them from working. They count on the policies to provide benefits to support them. However, many insurance companies have denied legitimate claims in the interest of saving money.

Unum, the biggest disability insurance provider in the U.S., has received a great deal of media attention following allegations that company representatives systematically denied legitimate Unum disability claims and rewarded the employees who denied the most claims.

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Wage & Hour Lawsuits Skyrocket in New York Federal Courts

By Courtney Coren

There has been an increase in wage-and-hour lawsuits in New York federal courts, surpassing national trends.

The wage-and-hour lawsuits have been brought by plaintiffs who claim that their employer violated rules under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Most of these FLSA lawsuits say the employees were not paid proper wages or overtime, arguing that they were misclassified as workers exempt from overtime payments.

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Policyholders Continue to Deal with Unum Claim Denials

By Amanda Antell

For the twelfth consecutive year in 2012, cancer is the most common reason for Unum to deny long-term disability claims. Currently, there are thousands of Unum policyholders fighting to claim their insurance money.

Unum cancer claims were nearly 16% of the entire long-term disability claims, while back disorders made second place at 15.1%. For short-term disability claims, first place was maternity at 18.9% and other non-back injuries at 10.5%.

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