Hertz faces another lawsuit alleging it failed to pay overtime

The Hertz Corp. is facing another lawsuit alleging unpaid overtime.

Brianne Gale, a former manager associate for the car rental giant in Pinellas County, has filed a collective action against the company in U.S. District Court in Tampa.

Gale alleges she was forced to do work off the clock to complete her job duties, satisfy her superiors and keep her job.

Gale worked for Hertz in Clearwater and Clearwater Beach, where Hertz "willfully refused to pay overtime wages" in violation of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, she alleged.

Court records show Gale also sued Enterprise Holdings, the parent company of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental and Alamo Rent a Car, for denial of overtime pay in U.S. District Court in Tampa a few years ago. The case was filed in September 2013 but dismissed less than two months later.

Other well-known car rental companies have been hit with similar lawsuits. So have many national retail chains over the past decade as more companies have looked for ways to squeeze more work out of fewer employees — a trend exacerbated by the Great Recession.

Hertz, which has its headquarters in Estero, has not yet filed an answer to Gale's complaint.

The judge has ordered the two sides to mediation, saying a mediation conference must be held by April 17.

The court plans to schedule a trial of the lawsuit 90 to 120 days from the date of the mediation conference if there is an impasse.

"Hertz is committed to paying our people for the time they work in compliance with applicable law," said Beth Davis, a Hertz spokeswoman.

"Like any company with a large base of hourly employees, we receive lawsuits regarding pay from time to time," Davis said. "We deal with each on its own merits, and over the past 15-plus years, none have resulted in an adverse judgment at trial."

Gale has not worked for Hertz since August 2015, Davis noted.

"Nevertheless," she said, "we are carefully investigating the allegations she has made."

If the case moves ahead and is certified as a collective action, other employees wanting to join the complaint could opt in and share in an award if the lawsuit is successful.

Mitchell Feldman, a Tampa-based attorney who represents Gale, said cases of this kind usually are settled, especially when they involve hundreds or thousands of workers. Often, settlements are kept confidential.

"I haven't had any of them that have gone to trial," Feldman said. "I have spent 2½ years in litigation but ultimately resolved it."

With these types of cases, companies can face the risk of multimillion-dollar judgments, especially if the size of the class grows into the hundreds or thousands.

Most wage-and-hour cases are started by former employees, Feldman said.

"Present employees are always scared and afraid of retaliation," he said. "They are afraid of being demoted or fired because they participated."

No other employees of Hertz have approached Feldman about joining Gale's suit since it was filed.

"The reality, from my initial review, is they did away with the position, so a lot of the people have left that position, and a fair amount of people moved on to other positions in the company as well," Feldman said. "I don't really know if anyone will come forward."

In California, Hertz has faced a string of lawsuits alleging the company failed to pay overtime wages as required by state and federal labor laws.

The federal Fair Labor Standards Act requires employees to receive 1½ times their pay for any hours worked over 40 in a workweek, unless the workers are exempt.

Exempt employees generally are paid a salary, and certain executive, administrative, professional and computer employees are excluded from the law.

In 2015, Juan Herrera filed a class-action suit against Hertz in Superior Court in Los Angeles, contending customer service employees in California worked through their breaks and off the clock without pay.

That case is pending, but a hearing for the preliminary approval of a settlement is scheduled for Thursday.

Gale also has sued Hertz in U.S. District Court in Tampa alleging sexual harassment and retaliation in her workplace. She is demanding a trial and seeks more than $15,000 in damages. With the case still in litigation, the company has no comment, said Hertz spokeswoman Davis. Feldman, Gale's attorney, also declined to comment.

In the complaint, Gale alleges her co-workers "engaged in a pattern of making offensive remarks, comments and physical advances that were inappropriate, sexual in nature, or contained sexual innuendos." She also contends her fellow employees "continually made verbal comments regarding engaging in sexual activity in the workplace."

In particular, Gale said, she was sexually harassed by an employee of the Marriott Hotel, working next to the Hertz rental office.

Gale said she complained to higher-ranking Hertz employees that she was sexually harassed and discriminated against based on her gender. But she alleges she was ignored, retaliated against and eventually fired to cover up the inappropriate behavior she described.

In a court filing, Hertz denied any unlawful employment practices or that its actions damaged Gale.

Hertz contends Gale filed an allegation of discrimination only with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and that it wasn't done in a timely fashion. The federal agency dismissed her complaint without an investigation, according to Hertz.

Hertz's other defenses include:

» Gale's lawsuit is barred by the statute of limitations because she alleged the discrimination took place as early as Sept. 24, 2014, more than a year before she filed a complaint with the EEOC.

» Gale was fired "based on her unprofessional conduct that resulted in a customer complaint."

» Gale did not "effectively report or complain about the discrimination, harassment or retaliation she now claims she suffered."

» There is a strong, user-friendly company policy in place against discrimination and retaliation, designed to prevent and promptly correct such behavior.

The court has ordered a mediation hearing by June 30 if the case is not settled or dismissed.

A final pretrial conference is set for Feb. 15, 2018, in Tampa. A five-day jury trial would follow in March.