Forever 21 Lawsuit Filed

The popular retail store, Forever 21, is being sued and this is not the first time that the retail chain has been sued either. In the past, the company was sued by an assortment of other clothing brands that made claims that Forever 21 was infringing on their copyright items. However, this new lawsuit is actually coming from workers of the Forever 21 Company. The employees are claiming that their employer have failed to pay them for the amount of hours they have worked for the company.

There are five employees who have filed the class action lawsuit against Forever 21. Four of the employees are no longer working with Forever 21 and one of the employees is still currently employed by the company. The lawsuit is seeking damages for the amount of hours that these employees had to work off of the clock for Forever 21 along with breaks for meals that they did not receive.

The five past and present employees are Jazzreeal Jones, Jessica Ramos, Shanelle Thompson, Alyssa Elias, and Tiffinee Linthicum. They are being represented by Norton &Melnik, APC, and Kitchin Legal. The employees have stated that they had to stay within the store during their lunch break and that when their shifts were over; they had to be searched to ensure that they did not steal any of the merchandise. Since each of the employees clocked out but we still stuck in the store for an extended period of time, it is commonly referred to as unpaid labor. It is believed that there are many other employees who have had to deal with the same treatment from this company.

According to the filings of the court, Forever 21 has a set policy that the bags of employees must be checked prior to leaving to ensure that nothing has been stolen. A spokesperson for Forever 21 made comments saying that checking bags before clocking out is a policy of Forever 21’s and employees should know about that when receiving employment with the company.

An attorney, Patrick Kitchin, has said, “We believe the practice is very widespread.” He has also said, “We’ve spoken to individuals from a number of [Forever 21] stores across California and all report the same thing.”

Kitchin refused to provide a number of employees that have been contacted by his legal team but has noted that the case is much large than it seems. He has made claims that it is possibly larger than The Polo Ralph Lauren class action, involving more than 6,000 employees in California. The case was settled in 2010 for $4 million. With The Polo Ralph Lauren case, some of the circumstances were eerily similar to the practices of Forever 21.