What was the Alro lawsuit about?

The lawsuit alleged Alro deprived workers of pay based on “Alro time” policy that instructed employees to arrive to work pre-shift to apply protective equipment or to simply be available for work assignments. According to the Plaintiff’s Complaint, the Defendant disregarded actual punch-clock times and set it its time keeping system to round-up to to shift start time, despite requiring workers to arrive pre-shift to perform work for for Alro. The case was uncovered with the diligent work of co-counsel Matthew Carlson.

The original complaint filed in the Alro Steel Lawsuit is available here.

Federal District Court Judge Murphy for the Eastern District of Michigan previously granted conditional certification and ordered notice of FLSA rights to opt-in for current and former warehouse employees of Alro Steel Corporation. The Court approved settlement will provide recovery to 390 current and former employees who returned the notice form.

How are FLSA settlement payments made?

Under the Settlement Agreement, all eligible warehouse workers who opted in to the lawsuit will receive settlement awards to compensate for unpaid overtime for off-the-clock work.  Some eligible collective members will receive hundreds or even thousands of dollars.  Under the court approved settlement all payments to collective members are proportionate based on the amount of time worked by each collective member.

What if I did not receive notice?  Will I still get a settlement check?

No. Only the people that returned forms to participate in the FLSA lawsuit will receive settlement payments. Notice was sent to the best available address for about 2,500 eligible potential collective members.  About 390 of the eligible people who received notice chose to opt-in to the class action.  The settlement provides recovery for those people.  If you did not opt-in, then you are not part of the settlement and none of your potential claims are impacted.  Those that did opt-in are being contacted regarding their settlement distribution.  If you believe you should have receive the notice but did not, you can contact Plaintiff’s counsel by clicking here.

How do I find more information about my wage rights?

Blanchard & Walker has a record of achieving remarkable results for Michigan workers for minimum wage and overtime violations under the FLSA and Michigan wage laws. Common wage fraud schemes include:

• failing to reimburse expenses for minimum wage workers
• misclassifying non-exempt workers as “overtime exempt” or salaried
• using “independent contractor” contracts to mislabel employees
• depriving “day-rate”  or “job-rate” workers of overtime pay
• Failing to pay for all working time and working off the clock
• using fake “commission” or “per-diem” to miscalculate payment rates

For questions regarding the content of this post, you can contact the authors at Blanchard & Walker PLLC.