Outten & Golden LLP is co-lead counsel in a consolidated class action lawsuit against Jimmy John’s Franchise, LLC and related corporate entities (“Jimmy John’s”). The lawsuit is known as In re: Jimmy John’s Overtime Litigation, No. 14 Civ. 5509, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The plaintiffs, who worked as assistant store managers (ASMs) at franchise-owned stores, allege that Jimmy John’s misclassified them and other ASMs at both corporate-owned and franchise-owned stores nationwide as exempt “executives” and deprived them of overtime pay even though ASMs primarily perform the duties of hourly shift employees like preparing sandwiches, greeting and serving customers, and cleaning the store. This lawsuit breaks new ground by seeking to hold Jimmy John’s liable as a joint employer of ASMs at franchise-owned stores because of the significant amount of control and oversight Jimmy John’s exercises over franchisees operations, staffing, and training. Before this case was consolidated, two courts granted conditional certification and ordered that notice and an opportunity to opt in be sent to all ASMs nationwide who worked for any Jimmy John’s store. These orders can be found here, here, and here.
For more information, please email Justin M. Swartz at jms@outtengolden.com or call 212-207-0043.
(*Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.)
