In a bold move, a former employee has filed a class-action lawsuit against his previous employer, alleging systematic wage theft and violations of labor laws. Arthur Youmans filed the complaint in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on June 10, 2024, targeting Tamaqua Transfer and Recycling Inc.
The lawsuit claims that Tamaqua Transfer and Recycling Inc. failed to pay overtime compensation to Youmans and other similarly situated employees who worked as Drivers. According to the complaint, these employees regularly worked more than forty hours per week but were not compensated at the required overtime rate of 1.5 times their regular pay for hours worked beyond forty in a workweek. This alleged failure violates both the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act (PMWA). The plaintiff contends that the company engaged in "systematic wage theft" by underreporting hours and failing to accurately track total hours worked.
Arthur Youmans began his employment with Tamaqua Transfer and Recycling Inc. in July 2023 and continued until March 16, 2024. Throughout his tenure, he made multiple attempts to clarify how he was being compensated but received inconsistent responses from management. For instance, Larry Wittig, a representative of the company, initially told him that drivers were paid "by the route." However, when questioned about discrepancies in pay for identical routes on different days, Wittig claimed they were paid "per hour." The company did not use time clocks or timesheets; instead, payroll manager Angela Dannenfelser was responsible for tracking hours despite arriving at work six hours after shifts began.
Youmans alleges that during one particular week in March 2024, he worked fifty-four hours but was only paid for forty-two and a half hours. When confronted about this discrepancy, Wittig reportedly said, "That’s what we feel it should take you to do the route," indicating an arbitrary approach to compensation irrespective of actual hours worked. This lack of accurate tracking led to unpaid overtime compensation for approximately ten to fifteen fewer hours than actually worked each week.
The plaintiff seeks several forms of relief from the court: authorization for this litigation to proceed as a collective action under FLSA; an order requiring Tamaqua Transfer and Recycling Inc. to provide names and addresses of all affected employees; back overtime wages; liquidated damages; reasonable attorneys' fees; pre- and post-judgment interest; and any additional general equitable relief deemed appropriate by the court.
Representing Youmans are attorneys Michael Murphy and Michael Groh from Murphy Law Group LLC. The case is assigned Case ID 3:24-cv-00949-JKM with Judge JKM presiding over it.