California Jared the Galleria of Jewelry Employees Owed Unpaid Wages for Off-the-Clock Work, Class Action Alleges

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A proposed class action alleges Sterling Jewelers Inc. and its parent company have failed to pay proper wages to current and former Jared the Galleria of Jewelry employees in California and provide required meal and rest breaks.

According to the 21-page lawsuit, Sterling and Signet Jewelers Ltd., who operate Jared the Galleria of Jewelry stores throughout California and other states, have a policy and practice of requiring employees to work off the clock during meal and rest periods without being properly compensated for this time.

“As a result,” the suit alleges, “Sterling Jewelers deprived Plaintiff and other Class Members of minimum, regular, and overtime wages for these hours worked, along with meal period premiums.”

Further, the lawsuit alleges that certain Jared workers are owed reimbursement for use of their personal cell phones to communicate with clients and post to their social media accounts during their shifts as required by the jewelry retailers.

The case claims that the practices described in the complaint are employed company-wide by Signet Jewelers, who also operates Kay Jewelers, Zales, Banter by Piercing Pagoda, Diamonds Direct, JamesAllen.com, Rocksbox, Peoples Jewelers, H. Samuel and Ernest Jones.

The plaintiff is a California resident who says she worked as a Jared jewelry specialist and jewelry specialist manager between August 2020 and July 2021. According to the case, the plaintiff and other employees were frequently required to perform work-related tasks while clocked out for meal periods but were not paid for this time. Because workers were required to perform a variety of non-sales tasks during their shifts—including cold-calling 10 customers per day; writing thank you notes; watching training videos and taking quizzes; communicating with customers; and posting to their personal social media accounts—it was “incredibly difficult” for them to consistently take off-duty meal and rest breaks, the suit says.

Moreover, the lawsuit relays that sales workers were placed in a rotation to be assigned customers in order to “fairly spread out the ability to earn commissions.” Whenever an employee took a break, however, they were taken out of the rotation and essentially placed “at the back of the line” upon their return to work, the suit claims. As a result, the case says, workers were discouraged from taking breaks at the risk of losing out on commissions.

According to the suit, California law requires employers to provide an off-duty, 30-minute meal period within an employee’s first five hours of work and a second meal period when they work 10 hours or more, or pay the employees at a premium rate for any missed breaks. The lawsuit alleges the defendants not only failed to provide proper meal and rest breaks but failed to pay workers at the required premium rate for time spent working through such breaks. Per the case, Jared workers were paid at their straight-time rates instead of their regular rates—including bonuses, commissions and incentives—for this time.

Similarly, the lawsuit claims that the defendants failed to pay workers at their regular rate for sick leave and COVID-19 supplemental sick leave, and instead paid the individuals based on their straight-time rates, in violation of California law.

The case also alleges that Jared workers were not provided with proper reimbursement for work-related expenses, such as for the use of their personal cell phones to make required updates to their social media accounts during each shift and communicate with customers.

Finally, the lawsuit claims that as a result of the aforementioned pay practices, Jared workers were not paid all wages owed at the time of their separation from employment, or provided with accurate, itemized wage statements.

The case looks to represent several classes of individuals who are currently or were formerly employed by the defendants in California, including those who were not provided with proper wages, meal and rest periods, break premiums, sick leave pay, reimbursement for work-related expenses, final pay upon their separation from employment and proper wage statements.

The lawsuit was initially filed in San Diego County Superior Court on March 4 before being removed to the California’s Southern District Court on April 15, 2022.

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