According to a recent news release from lawyers representing Ann Coldiron, the lead plaintiff in the case, Pizza Hut violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by misclassifying her as an exempt employee. The exemption kept Coldiron from receiving overtime pay while working as a "Restaurant General Manager" (RGM) for Pizza Hut. Despite the executive-sounding title of RGM, Coldiron, and others like her, were allegedly misclassified as exempt, under the rationale that their primary or principal duties were managerial. The lawsuit alleges that approximately 90% of an RGMs’ working time is spent performing production-related, non-exempt tasks alongside the subordinates they supervise. Those tasks include making pizzas, taking telephone orders and cleaning the facilities. Coldiron and her management counterparts allegedly worked in excess of 50 hours per week without overtime pay.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employees are generally not entitled to their lost overtime pay for hours they worked more than two, or in some cases, three years past the filing date of the action that seeks repayment of the lost overtime pay. Though managers are generally unable to receive overtime, in certain circumstances where their work is much the same as employees under their supervision, they may be eligible for overtime. Once you join this action, you can only collect lost wages for two or three years prior to that date, nothing more. To stop this clock from running out on your claims and to prevent yourself from losing any more money, you should join the action as soon as possible.