Class action suit filed against TruGreen Ltd. alleging overtime pay violations

A lawn care services company has been named as a defendant in a class action lawsuit

that alleges the organization violated the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act when it failed to compensate employees for overtime hours worked during a three-year time period.

Attorneys with the Montgomery County law firm of Winebrake & Santillo filed suit in Philadelphia’s Common Pleas Court Nov. 11 on behalf of Gary Kelkis and Michael Maguire, sales representatives with Tennessee-based TruGreen Limited Partnership.

The company, which provides lawn, tree and shrub care and maintenance throughout the country, has employed more than 50 sales representatives in Pennsylvania during the three-year time period that is subject to the litigation.

The complaint alleges that the defendant’s “fluctuating workweek methodology” for overtime compensation meant the plaintiffs and other putative class members were underpaid for hours worked more than 40 in any given workweek dating back to Nov. 11, 2009.

Kelkis was employed as a sales representative assigned to a TruGreen location York, Pa. from April 2010 through October of that year, and again from March to June 2011.

Maguire worked for the defendant at its Allentown, Pa. location from November 2009 to June 2010.

The plaintiffs, along with the other class members, received a weekly salary and were paid pursuant to the fluctuating workweek methodology of overtime compensation.

Additional defendants named in the civil action are TruGreen Inc. and The ServiceMaster Co.

The defendants are accused of violating Pennsylvania’s Minimum Wage Act, which requires that employees receive overtime compensation “not less than one and one-half times” the employees’ regular rate of pay for all hours worked more than 40 in a week.

“As a result of the Defendants’ illegal conduct, Plaintiffs and the class members have received overtime payments that are significantly less than the payments they would have received in the absence of the fluctuating workweek method,” the lawsuit states.

Class action status is sought, the suit says, because the class is so numerous that joinder of all individual members is impracticable, and the class members are “objectively ascertainable based on payroll data maintained or controlled by Defendants.”

There are also questions of law and fact that are common to the entire class, a requirement for class action certification.

The complaint seeks to have a judge issue an injunction prohibiting the defendants from engaging in future violations of the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act.

It also seeks to have the plaintiffs and class members receive unpaid overtime wages, as well as prejudgment interest, litigation costs, attorney’s fees and other court relief.

 

The case ID number is 121101024.