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Plaintiffs File Class Action Against First Student, Inc. Alleging Violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and State Laws on Behalf of Bus Drivers and Dispatchers

Posted on: Wednesday, 5 August 2009, 16:00 CDT

The Lawsuit Claims That Bus Drivers and Dispatchers at First Student, Inc.'s Terminal in Little Rock, Arkansas Are Forced to Work 'Off-The-Clock' and Without Overtime Pay

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of bus drivers and dispatchers employed by First Student, Inc. at its terminal in Little Rock, Arkansas. The lawsuit, Douglas, et al. v. First Student, Inc., Civil Action No. 4:09-cv-00652, was filed on Friday, July 31, 2009 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, on behalf of "all persons employed by First Student, Inc. as drivers and/or dispatchers at its terminal in Little Rock, Arkansas at any time from August 1, 2006 to the present."

This is the second class action lawsuit filed on behalf of bus drivers and dispatchers employed by First Student, Inc., which describes itself on its website as "North America's leading school bus transportation services company and responsible for safely transporting 4 million students to and from school every day." Another class action lawsuit, Hoffman v. First Student, Inc., Civil Action No. 06-1882, is currently pending against First Student, Inc. in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. The Hoffman case, which also alleges claims of unpaid wages and unpaid overtime on behalf of bus drivers and dispatchers in Maryland, has already been approved by the court as a class action and will go to trial soon.

The lawsuit that was just filed on behalf of bus drivers and dispatchers employed by First Student, Inc. in Arkansas alleges that First Student, Inc. violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and Arkansas state laws by failing to pay its bus drivers and dispatchers for all hours and overtime worked. For example, the Complaint alleges that drivers are paid for two and a half hours for their morning route and two and a half hours for their afternoon route regardless of how many hours it actually takes them to complete their routes and complete other work associated with their routes such as pre-trip and post-trip inspections. Similarly, the bus drivers allege that they are not paid for all of their work time for field trips and athletic events. First Student, Inc.'s website states that it maintains a fleet of more than 60,000 school buses and 68,000 drivers nationwide.

"First Student, Inc. appears to be engaging in violations of the federal and state overtime laws by requiring its bus drivers and dispatchers to spend numerous hours working off-the-clock and without compensation. The plaintiffs have filed this lawsuit to ask that First Student, Inc. be held accountable for failing to pay its employees wages they have legitimately earned," said Shanon Carson of Berger & Montague, P.C., one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs. Another attorney for the plaintiffs in both cases, C. Christopher Brown of Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP, states, "The conduct we have seen in these cases and across First Student, Inc.'s terminals, whether in Baltimore, Maryland or Little Rock, Arkansas, is similar, and it is important that it be addressed by the courts and that a remedy is fashioned that will ensure that First Student, Inc. changes its policies to ensure that workers are paid for all of their time spent working."

Current and former employees of First Student, Inc. can obtain additional information about these lawsuits by calling Shanon Carson at (215) 875-4656 or Sarah R. Schalman-Bergen at (215) 875-3053, or by email at scarson@bm.net or sschalman-bergen@bm.net. Information concerning the above cases, including electronic copies of the complaints, is also available at www.bergermontague.com .

This case is being prosecuted by a national consortium of law firms including Berger & Montague, P.C., based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP, based in Baltimore, Maryland; and Schneider Wallace Cottrell Brayton Konecky LLP, based in San Francisco, California. An additional law firm, Lavey & Burnett, based in Little Rock, Arkansas, is also representing the workers in the case filed on behalf of bus drivers and dispatchers in Arkansas.

The law firm of Berger & Montague, P.C. consists of over 60 attorneys who represent plaintiffs in complex litigation. Shanon Carson is the head of the firm's Labor and Employment Department which has extensive experience representing employees in class and collective action litigation. The firm has played lead roles in major cases for almost 40 years resulting in recoveries of billions of dollars for its clients and the classes they represent. On the Web: www.bergermontague.com .

Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP is a law firm of trial lawyers based in Baltimore, Maryland whose lawyers have been selected as among the Best Lawyers in America, Maryland's Top 50 "Super Lawyers," the Daily Record's Leaders in Law, and Maryland's Top 100 Women, as Fellows of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and as Maryland Trial Lawyer of the Year. The firm has also been named the Pro Bono Firm of the Year by the Maryland State Bar Association. On the Web: www.browngold.com .

Schneider Wallace Cottrell Brayton Konecky LLP is a dedicated group of California trial lawyers committed to continuing the work of the civil rights movement through individual and class action litigation. For 15 years, the firm's attorneys have handled individual and class action lawsuits involving disability rights, employment discrimination, wage and hour violations, and consumer rights. On the Web: www.schneiderwallace.com .

SOURCE Berger & Montague, P.C.

Source: PR Newswire

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