KANSAS CITY – A yard hostler has filed a potential class action lawsuit against a Kansas City transportation company claiming violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Shawn Seals filed his complaint November 8 in federal court against Gully Transportation. He claims the company improperly classifies yard hostlers, including himself, as FLSA-exempt employees, resulting in their being denied proper overtime compensation.
Seals has been employed by Gully as a yard hostler since 2020. A hostler move trailers and shipping containers around a construction yard. Responsibilities typically include transporting empty and full trailers and containers in and out of dock doors.
Seals says duties performed by yard hostlers do not meet the criteria for exempt status. The complaint contends that this classification results in yard hostlers being ineligible for overtime compensation under Gully's uniform compensation plan.
Despite regularly working more than 40 hours per week, Seals says he and other yard hostlers are not compensated at a rate of at least one and a half times the regular rate for overtime. The complaint also says Gully's compensation policy of rounding hours to the next lowest whole number in each paycheck results in inaccurate wage statements.
Seals is seeking damages for overtime compensation for himself and others in his class, including liquidated damages, plus interest, court costs, attorney's fees, and any other relief the court deems proper.
He is represented by John J. Ziegelmeyer III, Brad K. Thoenen, Kevin A. Todd, and Ethan A. Crockett of HKM Employment Attorneys in Kansas City and by Michael Hodgson of The Hodgson Law Firm in Lee's Summit.
U.S. District Court for the Western Division of Missouri case number 4:23-cv-00824