Rent-a-Center’s agreement to pay $4.95 million to settle allegati...
Rent-a-Center’s agreement to pay $4.95 million to settle allegations that it violated Cal. wage and hour laws is scheduled for a preliminary approval hearing Thurs. in Cal. Superior Court, L.A., the chain said in a 10-Q filing at the…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
SEC. RAC reached a preliminary settlement in Aug. with former store managers Jeremy Burdusis and Israel French and other employees, agreeing to pay $4.95 million cash, including attorney’s fees, the chain said. The proposed settlement was to be sent to 6,250 former and current employees who have worked for the chain since Aug. 1998. The suit was filed in 2001 against RAC by Burdusis, who alleged that the chain broke Cal. law on overtime, lunch and work breaks. RAC promised but didn’t pay overtime, the suit said. Meanwhile, RAC will file a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court by a Thurs. deadline seeking to overturn a N.J. Supreme Court finding that it falls under the same interest caps as other retailers taking installment payments. The N.J. Supreme Court’s decision reversed a lower court dismissal of Helda Perez’s suit. She claimed in a suit filed in 2003 that RAC violated N.J. Retail Installment Sales & Consumer Fraud Act, which caps at 30% a year the interest on installment deals. The suit sought to include aggrieved customers back to 1999. “No class has been certified by a trial court and no finding of liability or damages has been made against us,” RAC said. “We believe we have valid arguments precluding retroactive application of the court’s decision to members of the punitive class and limiting damages” available to Perez. A hearing on Perez’s renewed motion for class certification is scheduled for Jan. 12 in N.J. Superior Court, RAC said. RAC also will complete construction of a new hq in Plano, Tex., in first quarter 2007, it said. RAC has spent about $10.6 million thus far on the project and expects to incur another $11.9-$16.9 million in costs by late Jan., the chain said. RAC purchased 15 acres in Plano for $5.2 million in Dec. 2005 for the hq and construction started the following month. RAC has $4.9 million remaining in lease obligations for its existing hq and will seek to the sublease the space, it said. Meanwhile, RAC has added another 24 financial services centers, including payday loans, to existing stores in the 4th quarter. It had 101 financial service operation Sept. 30.