Savannah Perez, a “sales consultant” for Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits in Texas, sued both the parent company and its Texas unit alleging it violated the Fair Labor STandards Act by not paying overtime for time worked in excess of 40 hours a week. The complaint seeks to include not only Perez but also others similarly situated.
Perez was employed as a “sales consultant – transatlantic on premise” from June 2021 to November 2021 in Texas at an annual salary of $23,345, the complaint says. But Perez and other sales consultants were not paid at the overtime rate of 1-1/2 their regular rate for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek. Instead they were “misclassified as exempt employes and paid . . . a salary to avoid overtime compensation.”
The complaint seeks to have all sales consultants employed in the U.S. in the three years prior to filing of the lawsuit.
The lawsuit seeks to recover unpaid overtime wages and liquidated damages equal to the unpaid overtime, attorneys fees and costs, and pre-judgment and post-judgment interest.
We asked SGWS for comment, but it had not replied when this story “wen to press.” If SGWS does comment, we’ll report what it says.