Overtime Compensation Issues Hounding GameStop

Six GameStop store managers finally had it to the brim with the supposed excessive manner by which GameStop, specialty retailer, deals with its employees.

Filing a collective-action lawsuit against the company, the store managers allege that they have been wrongfully declared exempt from overtime regulations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Putting in about 50-60 extra hours a week without compensation, these employees are now seeking to win damages with interest for the unpaid overtime work, as well as an award of their attorneys’ fees.

The FLSA states that those “employed in a bonafide executive, administrative, or professional capacity” are exempt from its overtime regulation. The store managers, however, claim that their job does not, in any way, include actual management of employees or exercise of discretionary function. These are in fact all determined and exercised by the corporation itself. Decisions concerning pricing, compensation of the store staff, stocks (which and where to be placed on shelves) are all up to the call of GameStop. They could not even hire or fire their own employees, as that power is practiced solely by the district managers.

In response, GameStop has moved for the dismissal of the case on the merit of it being similar in substance to a case filed back in 1994, that up to now is still pending. The said lawsuit was brought against the company by an assistant store manager in New York City, on behalf of all Electronics Boutique employees denied of their minimum wages or overtime pay since 1998. Legal proceedings have already begun before Electronics Boutique merged with GameStop last year.

As of May this year, the New York suit parties have made known to the court that they were already in the preliminary stages of negotiating a settlement. There is no ruling yet, however, from the judge in the Louisiana suit as to whether or not the case will be dismissed, postponed, or moved to New York so the same court may hold jurisdiction over both suits.

Publishers Electronic Arts and Activision have also faced employee lawsuits over the same issue of overtime compensation in the past.

Via gamespot

Six GameStop store managers finally had it to the brim with the supposed excessive manner by which GameStop, specialty retailer, deals with its employees.

Filing a collective-action lawsuit against the company, the store managers allege that they have been wrongfully declared exempt from overtime regulations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Putting in about 50-60 extra hours a week without compensation, these employees are now seeking to win damages with interest for the unpaid overtime work, as well as an award of their attorneys’ fees.

The FLSA states that those “employed in a bonafide executive, administrative, or professional capacity” are exempt from its overtime regulation. The store managers, however, claim that their job does not, in any way, include actual management of employees or exercise of discretionary function. These are in fact all determined and exercised by the corporation itself. Decisions concerning pricing, compensation of the store staff, stocks (which and where to be placed on shelves) are all up to the call of GameStop. They could not even hire or fire their own employees, as that power is practiced solely by the district managers.

In response, GameStop has moved for the dismissal of the case on the merit of it being similar in substance to a case filed back in 1994, that up to now is still pending. The said lawsuit was brought against the company by an assistant store manager in New York City, on behalf of all Electronics Boutique employees denied of their minimum wages or overtime pay since 1998. Legal proceedings have already begun before Electronics Boutique merged with GameStop last year.

As of May this year, the New York suit parties have made known to the court that they were already in the preliminary stages of negotiating a settlement. There is no ruling yet, however, from the judge in the Louisiana suit as to whether or not the case will be dismissed, postponed, or moved to New York so the same court may hold jurisdiction over both suits.

Publishers Electronic Arts and Activision have also faced employee lawsuits over the same issue of overtime compensation in the past.

Via gamespot