Wawa Inc. and its owners were ordered Wednesday to pay $1.4 million to settle a lawsuit they intentionally short-changed more than 300 assistant general managers on overtime and wages.

Anthony Gervasio, of Burlington County, and Michael Dinse, of Ocean County, were part of a federal class action suit filed in January 2017 against the convenience store chain alleging they worked more than 40 hours a week without receiving overtime as required by federal law.

"As a retailer operating over 720 stores throughout the country, (Wawa) knew or recklessly disregarded the fact that the (Fair Labor Standards Act) required it to pay employees performing non-exempt duties an overtime premium for hours worked in excess of 40 per week," attorneys stated in the lawsuit.

Gervasio, who worked for the chain from 2006 to 2016, brought the suit on behalf of all assistant general managers who claimed they were not compensated for all hours worked.

In court documents, Gervasio, of Riverside, claimed he worked an average of 50 to 55 hours per week. Dinse, of Brick, who worked for Wawa from 2009 to 2014, also claimed he worked up to 55 hours per week, according to the suit.

The managers should not have been exempt from overtime laws because their duties involved manual labor, customer service and other non-exempt tasks, according to court documents.

New York attorneys from the firm Hepworth Gershbaum & Roth argued Wawa knew the assistant general managers were not exempt from federal overtime laws but tasked the managers with working overtime anyway.

U.S. District Judge Peter Sheridan, sitting in New Jersey, on Wednesday approved a deal that requires Wawa and its parent company, Wild Goose Holdings, to pay more than $1.4 million to 333 assistant managers for improperly classifying them as overtime-exempt employees.

Each of the workers in the suit from stores in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Florida and Delaware will receive an average of $86.74 for each week they worked, according to the order.

A spokesperson for Wawa Inc. did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Friday.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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