Six Flags New England Class Action Lawsuit Settlements

Six Flags New England employees have won two class action settlements over wage violations at the Agawam, Massachusetts amusement park: a $4 million overtime settlement approved in April 2021, and a settlement of more than $930,000 in 2023 covering unpaid time spent in mandatory security screenings. Both cases were brought on behalf of the park’s seasonal hourly workforce, largely high school and college students working summer jobs.

The $4 Million Overtime Settlement

The overtime case, Dakota Hickman & Matthew D’Agostino v. Riverside Park Enterprises, Inc. d/b/a Six Flags New England, was filed in Suffolk Superior Court (SUCV2016-00572-BLS2). The plaintiffs alleged the park failed to pay time-and-a-half to thousands of seasonal hourly workers who exceeded 40 hours in a workweek. Six Flags argued it was exempt under the Massachusetts Overtime Act, G.L. c. 151, § 1A(20), which excuses amusement parks that operate 150 calendar days or fewer per year. The plaintiffs said the park crossed that line once special events and extended-season days were counted.

Justice Janet L. Sanders certified the overtime claim as a class action on November 7, 2018, covering more than 18,000 seasonal employees who had worked more than 40 hours in at least one workweek without receiving overtime pay.¹

How the 150-Day Ruling Broke the Case Open

A summary judgment decision on June 20, 2019 resolved the exemption question year by year. The court rejected Six Flags’ argument that short-schedule days should count as partial days, holding that “the statutory exemption says nothing about counting hours, or treating shorter days as less than a calendar day.” The court also ruled that “Holiday in the Park” winter event days had to be counted toward the 150-day limit, even though Six Flags had obtained a separate seasonal exemption for those specific events.²

The result was mixed by year. The park lost its overtime exemption for 2015, 2017, and 2018, but kept it for 2013, 2014, and 2016.² Later discovery confirmed employees were also owed overtime for 2019.³

Who Was Covered and How the Money Was Distributed

The $4 million settlement fund covered approximately 2,600 seasonal employees denied overtime in 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2019. Plaintiffs’ counsel said the amount represented roughly 95 percent of the potential damages owed. Final approval came in April 2021.³

Distribution proved difficult because most class members were young workers who had moved on from the addresses on file. Attorney Nicholas F. Ortiz of Ortiz & Moeslinger, who represented the plaintiffs, said the class was made up largely of high school and college students who changed addresses frequently and were hard to track down. More than $203,000 went unclaimed and was awarded as a cy pres distribution to Community Legal Aid, a nonprofit providing free civil legal services across western and central Massachusetts. The organization said it planned to use the funds to hire one or two additional employment-law attorneys.³

The $930,000 Security-Screening Settlement

The second class action was filed in 2022 by Meghan Barnes, a park employee, in Hampden Superior Court. It named Riverside Park Enterprises, LLC and alleged violations of the Massachusetts Minimum Fair Wage Act and the Massachusetts Wage Act (M.G.L. c. 149, § 148). According to the complaint, hourly workers were required to pass through mandatory security screenings and badge scans before and after every shift without being paid for that time, which averaged 10 to 20 minutes per day. Barnes also alleged the delays sometimes caused employees to clock in late, resulting in tardiness penalties on top of the lost wages.⁴

Six Flags agreed to pay over $930,000 to resolve the case. A judge granted preliminary approval in July 2023, with final approval scheduled for mid-January 2024. The settlement class covered workers employed at the park from July 2018 through December 2023.⁴

The screening claim was not unique to the Agawam park. In October 2022, a similar suit, Mack v. Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, was filed against Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey. That case alleged hourly workers spent 10 to 40 minutes per day in unpaid security screenings and walking between the park entrance and interior time clocks, and it sought more than $5 million in unpaid wages for workers dating back to 2016.⁵

Other Six Flags New England Litigation

One other case is often confused with the wage settlements but has not resulted in one. LaBonte v. Riverside Park Enterprises, Inc. (Case No. 3:22-cv-30046), filed in April 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, is an ADA discrimination suit brought by the parents of a child with spinal muscular atrophy. They allege the park refused to allow the child to use a physician-prescribed medical stroller on its water attractions. The court denied Six Flags’ motion to dismiss in November 2022, finding the case viable even though the child had outgrown the specific stroller, because the park’s policy appeared to broadly prohibit all strollers and wheelchairs on aquatic rides.⁶⁷ The docket shows activity as recently as February 2026, and the case remains ongoing.

1
Mass Lawyers Weekly. Hickman v. Riverside Park Enterprises, SUCV2016-00572-BLS2
2
Ortiz & Moeslinger. Six Flags Overtime Decision
3
Community Legal Aid. Cy Pres Awards From Six Flags, Other Cases, to Fund Western Massachusetts Legal Services
4
MassLive. Six Flags Agrees to Pay Nearly $1 Million to Settle Class Action Lawsuit Filed by Employees Over Lost Wages
5
Courier-Post. Great Adventure Employees Class Action Suit Lost Pay
6
CourtListener. LaBonte v. Riverside Park Enterprises, Inc.
7
Courthouse News Service. Six Flags Faces ADA Suit