Feb. 14, 2018—Monro Inc. agreed recently to settle an 8-year-old class-action suit related to unpaid wages and overtime for former technicians and assistant store managers, agreeing to pay $1.95 million to the plaintiffs, Tire Business reports.
The plaintiffs claimed they were denied "regular, overtime and meal and rest period compensation" as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuit at any time within three years prior to the filing date of the action.
The suit over time attracted more than 1,100 co-plaintiffs, according to court records. The case was heard in the U.S. District Court, Western District of New York.
Among specific charges levied by the plaintiffs were that Monro management told employees not to clock-in, clocked out employees while the employees continued to work, altered time records and did not pay employees who worked during meal and/or rest periods.
The settlement arose out of mediation the parties agreed to after a series of motions and appeals throughout 2017 regarding the federal court's granting on March 31 to decertify the class-action.
In comments to financial analysts in a recent conference call, CFO Brian D'Ambrosia said the company opted to settle the case because its analysis "led us to the conclusion that the settlement was a better amount of favorable one.
"Any litigation takes a certain amount of management's time,…and we believe that settling this matter will allow management to focus and running the company's operations and executing the initiatives previously laid out."
