It is sad to say, but violating an employee’s right to fair wages and properly tracking and paying for a person’s hours seems to be a common tactic in the world of business right now. Companies are willing to risk the seemingly paltry penalties associated with wage and hour violations to try to undermine their employees ability to earn the wages that they are owed or due.
Hertz has been the target of such wage and hour lawsuits before — just as much of rental car industry has — and they face another one now. A former associate manager is suing the company for forcing her to work hours that she wasn’t paid for all under the guise of being able to keep her job. She claims that Hertz willfully refused to pay overtime wages, which is a violation of federal law.
There are a couple of things to take away from this story, with the most obvious being that sometimes companies don’t act in the best interests of their own employees. When this manifests itself in the form of denying people wages and forcing people to work unpaid overtime, the affected employees need to hold their employer responsible.
The other factor here is that most of these lawsuits never make it to court. They usually are settled out of court, which is often an acceptable outcome for both parties. If you have been affected by a wage and hour violation, be prepared for this.
Source: Naples Daily News, “Hertz faces another lawsuit alleging it failed to pay overtime,” Laura Layden, Jan. 31, 2017