The action alleges that TGF employees are not paid for the 15 minutes before their shift officially begins, even though company policy requires them to be on the premises. Further, if business is slow, they are allegedly forced to clock out even though they don’t get to leave. Time spent in attendance at mandatory meetings is also allegedly off the clock.

TGF appears to be leading a campaign to discourage its workers from joining the lawsuit-- the chain of nearly 200 salons launched www.brelianlawsuitfacts.com, which warns employees to "be sure to read the fine print" before signing up. Even more troubling, former TGF supervisor Elvira Arriaga has now alleged that, formerly, employees who signed on to the overtime lawsuit were identified at each management meeting. At that time, supervisors and managers were allegedly encouraged to keep a close eye on them so they could be dismissed for disciplinary reasons. Arriaga, who earned about $33,000 a year managing as many as 40 TGF locations, recalls a meeting in which a regional supervisor said a League City employee had joined the lawsuit and threatened to fire her. Arriaga was terminated in August 2004, shortly after filing an affidavit detailing pressure to discipline employees. In addition to a retaliation lawsuit, she has now filed an age discrimination charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Because of the alleged intimidation tactics, attorneys for the class have requested that the judge allow employees to join the lawsuit under seal so TGF won't know their identity. Retaliation against employees is expressly forbidden by federal labor law, under threat of lawsuit.

The defendant in an overtime lawsuit has an incentive to make it hard for the potential class members-- to participate, workers have to opt in. The more workers that are prevented from joining the lawsuit, the lower the employer’s potential damages. Other types of class action employment cases, gender and race discrimination, for example, automatically include all affected employees, and individuals must opt out if they don't want to participate.

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. Once you join this action, you can only collect lost wages for two or three years prior to that date, nothing more. Even so, that amount can easily add up to thousands of dollars. The deadline for joining this action is apparently October 19, 2004.