Engineer’s FLSA Lawsuit Against Ford Paints Picture of Potentially Illegal Pay Practices

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

Ford Motor Company is facing the claims of a former engineer who alleges the company failed to pay him for all his hours worked. The plaintiff says he was employed at Ford’s Chicago assembly plant and was responsible for overseeing 50 robots that applied paint and sealant to vehicles. According to the complaint, he performed many manual tasks, did not supervise any employees, and was not required to attend extensive training before he was able to perform his job, meaning he should be considered non-exempt from Fair Labor Standards Act protections, including overtime wages.

The plaintiff says Ford used to schedule employees for 12-and-a-half hour shifts, allowing an extra half hour of overlap between shifts for the exchange of information. The suit alleges that, at some point, the defendant changed employees’ schedules to 12-hour shifts but asked them to arrive 15 minutes early and stay 15 minutes late without compensation. The plaintiff’s superintendent allegedly told him, “We can’t pay you for it, but we still want you to come in for the shift change.”

The plaintiff says he attempted to record the extra half hour for each shift in his timesheets only to have it deleted later by his superintendent. He further argues that the defendant automatically deducted 30 minutes each day for a lunch break that he was never able to take. He claims the defendant’s pay practices denied him proper wages for all the hours he worked, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.