A recent article published in The Legal Intelligencer highlighted notable opinions from Pennsylvania’s state and federal courts with regard to class action lawsuits. One of the cases mentioned was the recent class action filed on behalf of 2,380 former and current McDonald’s employees whose franchisee had paid them with fee-laden debit cards.
The Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas certified a class action in Siciliano v. Albert/Carol Mueller T-A McDonalds, No. 2013-07010 in May 2015. The plaintiffs alleged that their employer’s exclusive use of payroll debit cards instead of cash or check forced them to pay to access their own money. The system, they argued, violated Pennsylvania’s Wage Payment and Collection Act. The court certified the lawsuits as a class action and ruled in June 2015 that the franchise owners broke the law.
After the court’s ruling, it is clear that according to Pennsylvania law, there is currently no exception for employees to be paid by a payroll debit card. However, there are likely other Pennsylvania employees – and not just those who work for McDonald’s – who have no choice but to deal with these fee-laden debit cards.
We believe other employees in Pennsylvania are being paid exclusively through payroll debit cards and are therefore paying fees to access their own earnings. Contact Anapol Weiss for assistance if you are a Pennsylvania employee who receives payment exclusively through a debit card system.
David Senoff is a partner at Anapol Weiss who specializes in class action lawsuits. David’s practice focuses on insurance and managed care bad faith cases, class action litigation involving insurance coverage disputes, consumer class actions and complex personal injury litigation including medical malpractice actions.