R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company may have required that its retail representatives perform off the clock work related tasks without pay.

Investigation and pending class action lawsuit against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company alleging that employees did not receive overtime pay as required by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA").

The class action lawsuit alleges that R.J. Reynolds unlawfully pays retail representatives only for work that they perform between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. According to the class action complaint, R.J. Reynolds should compensate retail representatives for administrative work they perform from their homes, including, but not limited to: reading and sending e-mails, reviewing field communications and other work-related memos, and performing their daily laptop communication. Plaintiffs also allege that R.J. Reynolds's practice of automatically deducting one hour of pay for lunch time is unlawful because many retail representatives did not take a full hour for lunch.

Plaintiffs also allege that R.J. Reynolds should pay retail representatives for the time they spend traveling between their homes and the first store on their route and/or the time they spend traveling from the last store on their route to their homes. Plaintiffs allege that R.J. Reynolds's company policies caused retail representatives to perform overtime work without compensation.

Even though R.J. Reynolds is well aware that retail representatives are not able to perform all of their essential job duties (including travel time, making store calls and performing daily administrative work from home) within a standard 8-hour day and 40-hour week, company policy dictates that no overtime compensation is allowed.

If you are a current or former Retail Representatives employed by R.J. Reynolds anytime from January 10, 2005, to the present, you are eligible to join a lawsuit.