Forever 21 Is the Latest Retailer to Be Sued for Utilizing Controversial On-Call Shifts

Forever 21, international purveyor of affordable clothes and empty promises of immortality, is the latest retailer to be hit with a lawsuit over its “exploitative scheduling practices.”

The company has been sued by Raalon Kennedy, a former sales clerk, who claims “the company requires employees to be on call for shifts but doesn’t compensate them with required pay for being made to report to work yet being sent home, as per California law.”

Reports Think Progress:

“In reality, these on-call shifts are no different than regular shifts, and Forever 21 has misclassified them in order to avoid paying reporting time in accordance with applicable law,” [Kennedy] said.

[…]

California law stipulates that employees be compensated with “reporting time pay” for being required to report to work but only being asked to work less than half of the actual shift. That pay is supposed to come to an employee’s regular rate of pay for half of a day’s work.

Earlier this year, CNN learned that the office of the Attorney General had sent letters “to 13 retail chains [including Target, Sears, Abercombie & Fitch, and Victoria’s Secret] asking for information about their so-called ‘on call shifts.’” Many of those retailers were the subject of a BuzzFeed report that detailed just how miserable on-call shifts can be.