A company-wide settlement was finalized between employee-plaintiffs and the Brickman Group in a class action regarding overtime pay. C. Andrew Head of Head Law Firm, LLC, was joined by Shanon Carson and Sarah Schalman-Bergen of Berger & Montague, P.C. to represent the plaintiffs and secure the $4.77 million settlement, which includes $1.51 million in legal fees. The case dates back to 2013, before the Brickman Group, a Maryland-based landscaping company, merged with another firm (and is now Brightview Landscapes LLC).
The settlement was approved by Judge Malachy Mannion of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on Oct. 2. The class/collective action settlement resolves the case filed by 839 employees against Brickman Group in October 2013, which alleged that Brickman Group underpaid overtime to its salary-paid supervisors by paying only half-time overtime pay under a “fluctuating workweek.” This pay plan resulted in a decreasing overtime rate the more hours that the employee worked, rather than the default time-and-a-half overtime premiums, in a manner that allegedly did not comply with the FLSA and state laws.
Judge Mannion’s final approval Order recognized that Plaintiffs had achieved “an excellent settlement,” with a high level of participation constituting “an excellent result,” and acknowledged the “skill and efficiency of the attorneys involved in this case, on both sides.”
The case is Acevedo, et al. v. Brightview Landscapes, LLC (f/k/a/ The Brickman Group Ltd. LLC), No. 3:13-cv-02529-MEM (M.D. Pa.).