Bend-based Les Schwab Tire Centers, which has more than 430 stores in the West, is again the target of a wage-and-hour dispute, this time in federal court in Seattle.

A lawsuit filed Nov. 6 in U.S. District Court alleges Les Schwab Tire Centers of Washington Inc. and its warehouse arm hired their assistant managers as employees exempt from state wage laws but worked them as hourly employees. Doing so, the suit alleges, allowed Les Schwab to avoid paying those employees overtime wages.

The suit, filed by Richard O’Hearn, a former assistant manager at the Bothell, Wash., tire center, seeks to represent a class of more than 100 former assistant managers that worked for Les Schwab in Washington between November 2008 and Nov. 6. The suit seeks more than $5 million in back pay and overtime.

Washington state labor law holds that individuals employed as executives, administrators or professionals may be exempt from the rule that workers are paid overtime after 40 hours of work. O’Hearn’s suit alleges assistant managers worked 60 or more hours each week without proper compensation.

“The assistant managers’ primary duties did not constitute the management of the Les Schwab business or require the exercise of discretionary powers,” O’Hearn’s attorneys, Steve Berman and Jeniphr A.E. Breckinridge, wrote in the lawsuit.

“In fact, the company’s assistant managers spent the vast majority of each day alongside nonexempt employees, performing the same tasks as those employees.”

A spokesman for Les Schwab Tire Centers Inc., Dale Thompson of Bend, gave a prepared response Tuesday that read, in part: “Our assistant managers play a vital role in managing our stores and providing world-class customer service. Les Schwab Tire Centers firmly believes it has complied with all applicable wage regulations. We are committed to a culture of loyalty, hard work and promotion from within.”

The company recently settled a class-action lawsuit in Oregon, a suit alleging similar claims and filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court in 2008. The plaintiffs, led by Brandon Ellis, David Wilkerson and Mike Stockton Jr., won a jury verdict in February 2012 but the company promised an appeal.

According to online state court records, both sides agreed in September to settle the case.

The plaintiffs’ attorney in that case, Jennifer Palmquist of Portland, did not return calls seeking comment. Thompson, in a prepared statement on Schwab’s behalf, stated, in part, “… settling this matter is in the best interests of all concerned.” He declined to discuss the settlement details.

O’Hearn’s federal suit alleges Les Schwab as of January no longer classifies its assistant managers as exempt. Thompson declined comment, except to say, “We’re not going to address anything they’re claiming. That’s the way they’ve framed it.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7815, jditzler@bendbulletin.com