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Where two plaintiffs have brought a putative class action alleging that their former employer withheld payments that they had earned through its employee referral program, their claim under the Massachusetts Wage Act must be dismissed because the referral bonus payments at issue are not “wages” under the statute, but they have plausibly alleged a claim for breach of contract.
“Plaintiffs Todd and Kelli Ruggere (together, the ‘Ruggeres’) bring this putative class action lawsuit alleging that their former employer, defendant United Parcel Service, Inc. (‘UPS’), withheld payments that they had earned through its employee referral program. Established in November 2021, this program has compensated employees for referring new hires during UPS’s peak season so long as the referred employees maintained their employment for a specified period of time. The Ruggeres received some referral payments but contend that, given the number of referrals they made, UPS has not sufficiently compensated them. They assert claims for failure to pay wages under the Massachusetts Wage Act, M.G.L.c. 149, §148 et seq., breach of contract, and unjust enrichment. Pending before the Court is UPS’s motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim. For the reasons that follow, that motion will be granted in part and denied in part. The Ruggeres have failed to state a viable Wage Act claim but plausibly allege a claim for breach of contract. And...
A bitter legal battle at JPMorgan Chase has taken another dramatic turn after executive Lorna Hajdini filed a defamation lawsuit against former banker Chirayu Rana, accusing him of making up false...