Unpaid Overtime Wages and Rounding Lawsuit Against Sanoh America

Our experienced unpaid wages attorneys at Coffman Legal have recently filed a lawsuit against Sanoh America, Inc., alleging that Sanoh did not properly pay its hourly production/manufacturing employees all the overtime wages that they earned due to rounding these employees’ time clock punches to their scheduled shift start or end times and not properly calculating overtime rates with bonuses.

As part of the lawsuit, a notice of the case is being sent out to all eligible Sanoh employees on Friday, May 30 by U.S. mail and text message. In order to join the lawsuit and be eligible to receive a portion of any potential settlement, eligible employees must fill out and return the Court-approved Notice using the instructions on the Notice.

What Does This Mean?

As part of the lawsuit, the Parties agreed that a Notice of the case should be sent to all current and former hourly non-exempt production/manufacturing employees of Sanoh who had their time punches rounded or received bonus compensation from January 22, 2021 through the present. The Court agreed and ordered that notice be sent to these employees, giving them the opportunity to learn about the case and join if they choose.

This notice will be sent out to all eligible employees by U.S. mail and text message on May 30, 2025, and the consent form attached to the notice must be returned by the deadline included in the notice and consent in order to join the case.

What Are the Claims in the Overtime Lawsuit Against Sanoh?

In the lawsuit, the workers state that they were not paid all the overtime compensation that they were entitled to because Sanoh rounded their clock in and clock out times in order to not pay for time spent working before and after the scheduled start and end of their shifts. It is alleged that Sanoh had several different rounding policies in place over the last three (3) years, such as a fourteen (14) minute clock in rule and a seven (7) minute clock in rule. During the period of time when the 14-minute rounding rule was in place, workers could clock in up to 14 minutes early, but they were not paid for any time they spent working before the scheduled start of their shifts. More recently, Sanoh changed the policy to restrict employees from clocking in more than 7 minutes early, but they still would not be paid for any of the time they spent working before the scheduled start of their shifts. The same rounding policies were also applied to work performed after the scheduled end of employees’ shifts. These rounding policies round the employees’ work time down in Sanoh’s favor so that employees are not paid for all the time they actually spend working.

The lawsuit also states that Sanoh did not properly calculate overtime rates during weeks when employees received bonus compensation like shift differentials, retention bonuses, and other bonuses. By not including these types of additional compensation when calculating employees’ overtime rates, Sanoh paid employees at a lower overtime rate than required by law.

Both the rounding policies or practices and the failure to include additional compensation when calculating employees’ overtime rates resulted in unpaid overtime for the workers.

What Could I Receive If I Join the Overtime Lawsuit?

If you are eligible to participate in the lawsuit and choose to join, you will be entitled to share in any settlement or judgment that is received. If we can demonstrate that you were not properly paid for all overtime work performed for one or more reason(s), the law provides that you could receive the following: (1) unpaid overtime for up to the last three years of work; (2) liquidated damages in an amount equal to the unpaid overtime (i.e., the potential for double [2x or 200%] damages); (3) attorneys’ fees and costs; and (4) other miscellaneous relief.

In this case, we are seeking all of the unpaid overtime that hourly production and manufacturing employees earned over the applicable timeframe covered by the case and liquidated damages, fees, costs, and other relief provided under the law.

What If I Did Not Receive a Notice and Consent Form?

If you did not receive a copy of the Court-Approved Notice, that does not necessarily mean that you cannot participate in the lawsuit. The notice is being sent by mail and text message. Sanoh may not have provided your current mailing address, or the notice may get lost in the mail. As with the mail, you may not receive the text message notice because Sanoh may not have provided your current phone number, or Sanoh may not have provided a cell phone number at all.

Additionally, in many cases, some individuals who are otherwise eligible to join are left off the notice list for unknown reasons.

If you believe that you are eligible to join this lawsuit against Sanoh but did not receive a Court-Approved Notice or Consent Form, you should contact our experienced unpaid overtime attorneys at 614-949-1181 or by sending an email to contact@mcoffmanlegal.com to discuss next steps.