Zara, Fashion Retailer Sued for Unpaid Wages

Zara USA, Inc., the retail clothing and fashion accessories store, has just been sued by hourly employees for owed wages. The lawsuit aims to recover overtime pay and other damages for alleged violations by the retailer under New York Labor Law (“NYLL”) and the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). Employees that may be affected by this lawsuit include hourly positions that are typically eligible for overtime pay such as cashiers, sales associates and stock associates who currently work or have worked for Zara USA, Inc. or Inditex USA LLC.

Zara pays its hourly employees an hourly rate plus commissions,accordingly their overtime rate should have included their commisionsearned as required by the FLSA and NYLL. However, the retailer allegedly failed to include their commissions when calculating their overtime when these hourly employees worked over 40 hours per week. The lawsuit also claims that the company violated the NYLL by paying its New York hourly workers bi-weekly basis when NY law requires that all manual laborers, such as retail employees, be paid their wages no later than seven days after the last day of the week in which their wages were earned. The chain store also required its hourly workers in New York to work shifts that lasted longer than 10 hours. If an hourly worker in New York completes a shift of over 10 hours, they must be given “spread of hours” pay, which allows the employee to receive an extra hour of pay at the applicable minimum wage rate. This requirement, however, was not met by the retailer as alleged in the compliant.

Workers in the retail industry are unfortunately common targets of these violations. Companies often fail to properly compensate its employees in order to cut costs at their workers’ expense. If you have worked for Zara as an hourly employee, such as a cashier, stock or sales associate, you may be able to join this case. Find out now by calling our firm, Fitapelli & Schaffer, at (212) 300-0375. Additionally, if you have experience in the retail industry, your rights may have been affected over the years. Feel free to call us for a confidential consultation regarding your employee rights or view our firm’s site here.

The filed complaint can also be viewed here.