Car Wash workers file suit claiming labor law violation

A group of current and former Shur-Brite car wash workers have filed a lawsuit claiming the company has not paid workers while they waited between customers. Joon Powell for The City Paper

Walter Jasper stands on the sidewalk in front of the Shur-Brite car wash on West End as traffic whizzes past him. A silver Mercedes slows down as if to pull in for service and Jasper straightens up in attention.

If the Mercedes decides to pull into Shur-Brite, Jasper and other workers will rush from the sidewalk and be clocked in by the car wash manager. Jasper and company will have the car cleaned in a matter of minutes and, if no other customers have gotten in line, the same manager will clock him out.

If the Mercedes doesn’t pull in for a wash, Jasper will continue waiting on the sidewalk hoping the next luxury sedan decides differently.

According to a lawsuit filed by three Shur-Brite workers, the car wash has been using this timecard practice for years. The suit alleges the Federal Labor Standards Act states Jasper should have remained on the clock while he waited for customers to arrive. But managers clock the workers in when it’s busy and then clock them out while they wait for more customers.

Some weeks Jasper will be at the Shur-Brite for upwards of 40 hours, but get paid for just 15 at the minimum wage rate of $5.85. According to payroll documents provided to the The City Paper by the Nashville Homeless Power Project, workers show up at roughly 7 a.m. and are clocked in and out as many as a dozen times before leaving work in the early evening.

The lawsuit states that many of the Shur-Brite workers are either homeless or live in extreme poverty.

The workers want their back pay and on May 30 filed suit in federal court against Shur-Brite owners William and Glenn Smith. According to their attorney, Charles Yezback, approximately 50 current and former Shur-Brite workers have joined the lawsuit. This includes Jasper, who has worked off and on at the car wash for 12 years.

“They don’t give a doggone about us,” Jasper said. “The only thing they care about is the business and that’s it.”

Not out to cheat anybody

Shur-Brite owners William and Glenn Smith have owned the car wash since 1973 and their family has been in the business since longer than that.

The Smiths have until later this month to submit their response to the lawsuit. Already the question seems to be not if a settlement is in order, but how much the workers will get paid.

“Our attorneys [Dewey Branstetter and Jim Stranch] have gotten all of our payroll records and we’ll find out what they say,” William Smith said. “It seems to be there will be some people that got some back wages coming.”

William Smith insists the timecard practices were not deliberate, but rather blames the car wash managers for the workers being shorted pay.

“We really want to make clear, we haven’t been out to cheat anybody,” Smith said. “We had clocked them in and clocked them out, but we had managers we relied on to do that. Apparently, they’ve done this wrong.”

Smith also maintains some of his workers made “some good money” and even have received paid vacations.

“We would never be out to cheat or hurt anybody,” Smith said again.

Homeless workers are exploited

Garrett Stark is the director of worker’s rights issues with the advocacy group the Nashville Homeless Power Project. Stark said the case of the Shur-Brite workers is an important one for the Nashville community, because it exposes what he said is an all-too-common practice.

“Most people see a homeless person and they think, ‘Why don’t you get a job?’” Stark said. “The truth is the majority of folks who are homeless are working. Most of them have a job. The problem is they’re being exploited to the point where they can’t make it out.”

Stark points out the study released by Vanderbilt professor Dr. Melissa Snarr, which stated the living wage for a worker in Nashville is $10.35 per hour.

“Anyone making less than that is at serious risk of becoming homeless,” Stark said.

Jasper said the car wash workers’ issue extends beyond recouping back pay. He said the issue is about treating people with respect. Besides back wages, the workers are also seeking benefits for full-time employees and a break room.

Jasper said Shur-Brite services more than 1,000 vehicles a day during winter months, which is the car wash’s busiest time. Jasper said the primary concern of the car wash’s management is fast customer service and not employee satisfaction.

“Now since this suit, [the owners and managers] come around and try to converse with us and all that, which is a good start,” Jasper said. “In the past, we’ve just been treated like crap. We’ve been disrespected.

“We’re the ones breaking our necks for this car wash, their business. In the end, they never say, ‘Thank you,’ or ‘Good job,’” he said.

Jasper said he stayed at the car wash for so long because, despite the unfair timecard practices, he needed the money to help support his family. The 47-year-old Jasper has five kids and three grandchildren.

“I know that if I have nothing to fall back on, I can always come here and have to deal with what I have to deal with to help support my family and to survive,” Jasper said.

Changes could be coming

The Interfaith Worker Justice Committee of Middle Tennessee, a group of faith-based community members concerned with worker’s rights, marched to Shur-Brite on June 21 with a letter for Glenn and William Smith.

The letter offered a meeting between the workers and the owners to talk out the differences. So far there has been no response, but William Smith said changes will be coming, although he said his greatest concern is for his customers, not his workers.

“We will try to work on some of the issues,” Smith said, adding Shur-Brite is trying to change its payroll procedures as well. “The worst part is we’re not going to get our customers the best possible, fastest service.”