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In June 2019, Fair Work filed a lawsuit against the furniture retail giant Jordan’s Furniture. The employee who brought that lawsuit was a former Jordan’s sales associate who claimed that Jordan’s had failed to pay “premium” wages (time-and-a-half) for working overtime and Sundays. His case followed a legal decision Fair Work previously helped obtain called Sullivan v. Sleepy’s LLC, 482 Mass. 227 (2019), in which the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that certain sales employees who are paid on a commission basis must also receive “separate and additional compensation” equal to at least 1.5 times the minimum wage for overtime and Sundays.
After more than two years of litigation, the trial court granted judgment against Jordan’s. The court ordered Jordan’s to pay back more than $8.8 million in unpaid premium wages, triple damages, and interest. In 2022, Jordan’s appealed that decision to the Supreme Judicial Court, arguing (among other things) that its pay plan complied with Sleepy’s. In 2024, the Court rejected that appeal and affirmed the trial court’s judgment. The Court held:
Simply put, a sales employee’s commissions are one type of compensation, and overtime and Sunday pay are separate types of compensation that require employers to make additional payments to employees. By attempting to allocate amounts owed to its sales employees in commissions toward their overtime and Sunday premium draws, Jordan’s did not provide its sales employees with separate and additional overtime and Sunday pay, thereby violating the overtime and Sunday pay statutes.
Sutton v. Jordan’s Furniture, Inc.
493 Mass. 728 (2024)
Following the appeal, on June 11, 2024, the trial court entered final judgment against Jordan’s in the amount of more than $11.6 million, with an additional $500,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs. That payment represented a complete recovery of all premium wages owed by Jordan’s to its Massachusetts sales employees for the time period between June 19, 2016 and August 1, 2019, plus triple damages and pre- and post-judgment interest.
If you have any questions about the Jordan’s lawsuit, you can contact Brant Casavant.