A class-action lawsuit filed against ABRA Auto Body and Glass last year was settled for $1 million in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota this week.
The settlement was proposed by plaintiffs in the suit in which two former ABRA employees alleged that the company required customer service managers and customer service representatives to work overtime without pay. ABRA allegedly did so by misclassifying the employees as "managerial," which exempted them from overtime pay.
Court documents show the $1 million settlement breaks down as follows:
- $623,166.67, plus interest, to be paid to class members
- $333,333.33 for plaintiffs’ counsel’s attorney’s fees
- $7,500 for plaintiffs’ costs and expenses
- $21,000 for the costs of the settlement administrator
- $7,500 service payments to each of the new names plaintiffs, Thomas Hale and Justin Schreckenstein, "to compensate them for the time and effort they expended in ably assisting plaintiffs’ counsel in the preparation, litigation and settlement of this action."
“In its order granting preliminary approval, this Court found that the proposed settlement was fair, adequate and reasonable and that it was not the product of collusion between the parties,” counsel for the plaintiffs, Charles V. Firth and Clayton D. Halunen of Halunen & Associates, wrote in the memorandum in support of the motion for approval.
