A national class action has been filed against The Body Shop International, PLC, and its subsidiaries The Body Shop , Inc., Skin & Hair Care Preparations, Inc., and Buth-Na-Bodhaige, Inc., on behalf of current and former employees who allege that the company failed to pay them overtime, in violation of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA). The action seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for up to three years of back overtime pay per worker. Qualified employees should join the action as soon as possible to prevent forfeiture of benefits because of the operation of federal statutory deadlines.

The action alleges that The Body Shop International and its subsidiaries are completely indifferent to the requirements of the FSLA regarding statutory overtime pay when it comes to its store managers. Its boutiques are often relatively small, requiring only a store manager and one or two other subordinate employees. In those circumstances managers allegedly often spend a majority of their time on tasks that are not managerial in nature. The FSLA and the labor laws of many states require payment of hours worked in excess of 40 per week to be paid at the rate of time-and-a-half, for non-exempt employees. Even those employees who are ineligible to receive overtime may receive it under certain circumstances. Salaried managers, who are typically ineligible, may become eligible to receive overtime if the majority of their work-time is spent on non-managerial tasks.

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. 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.