Seventy-five present and former Retail Sales Representatives (RSR) have joined the action filed in US District Court in San Francisco seeking unpaid overtime from the chocolate giant. (Case Number 3:11-CV-05117-BZ) Previously this office represented over 100 RSRs seeking unpaid overtime in a wage and hour Fair Labor and Standards Act (FLSA) collective action. On February 23, 2011, the Honorable Magistrate Bernard Zimmerman, United States District Court for the Northern District of California, issued an order holding that the Hershey RSRs, who were present and former employees and who had joined the previous overtime case against Hershey, were entitled to overtime compensation. The Court held that the RSRs are not exempt under the “outside sales” or “administrative exemptions” as a matter of law. Shortly thereafter the case was resolved. (See Campanelli vs. Hershey Co. (N.D. Cal, 2011) 765 F. Supp 2d 1185 )
Unfortunately, Hershey made no attempt to pay past overtime owed to its current and former RSRs, so on October 19, 2011 a second wage and hour FLSA collective action was filed by 12 present and former RSRs by the Brandi Law Firm, in conjunction with Colorado attorney David Feola. Since then, these twelve have been joined by over 60 others who filed consents to join. It is estimated that upwards of 600 additional present and former RSRs may be eligible to join this case. On February 1, 2012, Hershey changed the RSR status to non exempt, and began paying overtime of 7.5 hours per week but made no provisions to pay for the countless unpaid hours worked by current and former RSRs in the last several years.
In the current litigation it is anticipated that Notice will shortly be sent to many of the present and former Hershey RSR’s advising them of their opportunity to join the case. If any present or former Hershey RSR seeks more information about this suit or their eligibility to obtain potential compensation for unpaid overtime they can contact the Brandi Law Firm (800) 481-1615, David Feola (800) 590-3184.
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