A class action has been filed against The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Inc., on behalf of current and former employees of A&P, The Food Emporium, and Waldbaum’s, who allege that the supermarket chains fail to pay them overtime wages, and deleted hours actually worked from time records, in violation of New York labor law. The action seeks unspecified compensatory damages.

The complaint seeks certification of a class of current and former full-time hourly employees of The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Inc. in New York for past six years. The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company operates approximately 140 supermarkets in the State of New York, of which 32 are A&P division stores, 32 are Food Emporium division stores, and 76 are Waldbaum's division stores.

Earlier this year, Lieff Cabraser and Outten & Golden represented approximately 900 current and former employees of A&P supermarkets in the greater New York City metropolitan area in a collective action lawsuit in federal court brought under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. The plaintiffs sought unpaid overtime compensation resulting from A&P's alleged failure to compensate them for work performed "off-the-clock." In May 2004, the federal court approved a settlement providing $3.11 million to the plaintiffs. The present suit is brought on behalf of an estimated thousands of current and former A&P, The Food Emporium, and Waldbaum's employees throughout New York state.