Houston Convenience Store Group — Overtime Denied to Cashiers Working 60-Hour Weeks

Chaudhry Muhammad Ayaz / Panthers Petroleum II, III & IV LLC | Cashiers | Houston, Texas

Convenience store cashiers at Houston-area gas station and c-store locations often work schedules that stretch well past 40 hours a week. When those workers are paid a flat weekly salary with no overtime component, the employer may be keeping the difference between what the law requires and what it actually pays. That is the situation alleged in a new federal lawsuit filed against a Houston convenience store owner and his three operating companies in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Buenker Law filed a federal collective action lawsuit on behalf of cashier Ignetius Fernandes and all similarly situated workers against Chaudhry Muhammad Ayaz and his companies, Panthers Petroleum II LLC, Panthers Petroleum III LLC, and Panthers Petroleum IV LLC, which operate convenience stores and gasoline stations in the Houston area under names including Panthers 25. The case is docketed as C.A. No. 4:26-cv-3526 in the Houston Division. The complaint alleges that Defendants paid cashiers a flat weekly salary while requiring them to regularly work more than 40 hours per week, and often more than 60 hours per week, without paying any overtime premium. The complaint further alleges that Defendants made improper deductions from employees’ promised salaries and failed to pay employees anything at all for certain periods during which they performed compensable work.

The FLSA requires that most employees receive overtime pay at one and one-half times their regular rate for every hour worked beyond 40 in a workweek. Paying a worker on a salary basis does not eliminate that obligation unless the employee qualifies for a recognized exemption and meets specific salary-level and job-duties requirements. Convenience store cashiers who operate registers, stock shelves, take out trash, and handle vendor deliveries generally do not meet any FLSA exemption. Employers who place non-exempt cashiers on a flat weekly salary and work them more than 40 hours without paying the overtime differential are violating federal law, regardless of how the pay arrangement is described or structured.

The lawsuit was filed as a collective action on behalf of all individuals working as cashiers for Chaudhry Muhammad Ayaz, operating through Panthers Petroleum II LLC, Panthers Petroleum III LLC, and Panthers Petroleum IV LLC, who were not paid overtime pay for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek, and/or who were not paid minimum wage for all hours worked, for at least one workweek during the three-year period preceding the filing of this complaint. This case is currently pending in federal court in Houston.

The complaint expressly alleges that Defendants acted knowingly, willfully, and with reckless disregard for their legal obligations under the FLSA. Ayaz is named individually as an employer who personally designed and implemented the unlawful compensation policy across all of his corporate entities, which means he may face individual liability alongside the corporate defendants. The lawsuit also asserts Texas state law claims for breach of contract and quantum meruit for wages promised but never paid.