On January 30, 2025, U.S. District Judge Christine P. O’Hearn certified a litigated Rule 23(b)(3) class of thousands of Target hourly warehouse workers in New Jersey. In the Opinion below, the Court determined that “[a]t the outset, Plaintiff makes a strong case for the commonality and typicality of the class members. All putative class members were employed by Defendant as hourly workers and the unifying and overriding legal question is whether the time spent by the class members in pre and post-shift activity constitutes hours worked.”
Partner, Charles J. Kocher: “This is a significant ruling in a large wage and hour class action that seeks to recover unpaid walking time for thousands of workers in three large Target warehouses spanning millions of square feet. I’ve walked it myself with my team Tyler J. Burrell and Gaetano J. DiPersia. Plaintiffs allege that Target has a uniform policy of not paying its hourly warehouse employees for all hours worked. We allege Target did not pay for pre-shift time required to travel to their assigned departments to clock-in. We also allege Target stopped paying Plaintiffs once they clocked out, even though it required them to perform work by walking on certain designated pathways to undergo security screening measures, badge out (again), and exit the main entrance so it could watch them on the way out. Therefore, we contend Plaintiff and the Class members were not paid all hours worked under New Jersey law.”