Former Employee Claims Sticker Mule, Print Bear Excluded Shift Differential from OT Pay

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Sticker Mule LLC and Print Bear, LLC face a proposed class and collective action wherein a former employee claims the companies failed to include shift differential pay in the calculation of workers’ overtime rates and provide accurate wage statements.

Alleging violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and New York’s Labor Law (NYLL), the 17-page case claims the failure of the defendants, who together manufacture stickers, to include the extra shift differential pay in overtime calculations was intentional and caused workers to be underpaid.

“Plaintiff and the Class Members are victims of Defendants’ common policy and plan that violated their rights under the NYLL by paying Class Members at an insufficient overtime rate,” the complaint alleges. “At all times relevant, Defendants’ unlawful policy and pattern or practice has been either willful or in the absence of good faith.”

The plaintiff says she was employed as a production staff worker between September 2018 and January 2020 and spent time, “regularly” more than 40 hours a week, per the suit, working in both of the defendants’ Amsterdam, New York factories. The complaint says Sticker Mule and Print Bear incentivized employees to work during the factories’ late-night second shift and overnight third shift by offering shift differential pay in addition to their regular hourly wages.

When these employees worked more than 40 hours per week, however, the defendants excluded the shift differential from their regular rates of pay and thereby paid them at a lower time-and-a-half overtime rate, the lawsuit alleges.

“In other words, Defendants paid these employee [sic] overtime based on their hourly wage and paid the shift differential separately,” the suit relays, contending the practice oversteps the overtime requirements set forth under state and federal law.

The lawsuit goes on to allege Sticker Mule and Print Bear also failed to include on workers’ paystubs their employer’s phone number and their basis of pay, both of which are requirements under the New York Labor Law.

“Defendants were or should have been aware that the NYLL required them to provide accurate wage statements each pay period,” the complaint charges. “Defendants’ unlawful conduct has been widespread, repeated, and consistent.”

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