in Newswire May 11, 2021

Bed Bath & Beyond Failed to Pay Timely Wages to Manual Workers in NY, Class Action Alleges

Hess et al. v. Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.

Filed: May 7, 2021 ◆§ 1:21-cv-04099

A proposed class action claims certain Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. employees have not been paid on a weekly basis as required under the New York Labor Law.

Defendant(s)

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.

Law(s)

New York Labor Law

State(s)

New York

A proposed class action claims certain Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. employees have not been paid on a weekly basis as required under the New York Labor Law (NYLL).

According to the lawsuit, sales associates, replenishers and floor managers performed mostly manual duties—and were thus considered “manual workers” under state law—yet were paid bi-weekly and not each week, in violation of the NYLL.

One of the lawsuit’s two plaintiffs says he worked at the defendant’s West Babylon, New York location as a sales associate and then as a replenisher for a total of about three-and-a-half years. As a sales associate, the plaintiff walked the sales floor, rearranged merchandise, helped customers and restocked items; as a replenisher, the plaintiff was responsible for restocking the sales floor, according to the suit. Per the case, the plaintiff spent at least 80 percent of his time engaged in physical labor and was thus a manual worker as defined by state law.

The second plaintiff says she worked as a floor manager for Bed Bath & Beyond at its East 61^st Street location in New York City between February 2003 and August 2017. In that role, the plaintiff was responsible for loading and unloading merchandise, assembling and installing fixtures, carrying items and boxes, ironing and steaming visuals, breaking open and unpacking boxes, setting up shelves, and placing items, according to the case. The suit alleges the plaintiff spent at least 25 percent of her time on physical labor—enough to classify her as a manual worker under state law, the lawsuit says.

Although each plaintiff performed a significant amount of manual labor, they were both paid bi-weekly instead of every week and no later than seven days after the workweek in which the wages were earned, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit looks to cover sales associates, replenishers and store managers who were employed by Bed Bath & Beyond in New York within the past six years.