Can Geico Employees Keep their Wage Suit Alive?

In recent news, Geico attempted to have an overtime pay lawsuit tossed, but in this instance, auto claim adjusters alleging the company forced workers to work off the clock, and failed to provide meal breaks and rest periods as required by law.

Details of the Case: Saul Gonzalez et al. v. Government Employees Insurance Company Inc.

Court: U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

Case No.: 2:20-cv-11722

Workers Filed a Collective and Class Action:

In December 2020, workers filed a collective and class action alleging Geico employees were required to work off the clock, and work through breaks without appropriate compensation. The push to work through breaks and off the clock was allegedly a company effort to meet inspection quotas and employees claim they feared refusing could result in poor performance evaluations. Plaintiffs Alexander Rieske and Saul Gonzalez filed the suit alleging violations of California and New York state laws, and violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. According to the motion, thirteen other adjusters have already joined the plaintiffs.

Defendant Files a Motion to Dismiss Claiming Lack of Jurisdiction:

In March 2021, Geico filed a motion to dismiss the suit claiming that there was no practical reason to litigate out-of-state claims in California and indicating the court lacked jurisdiction to decide the claims in the case. In their opposition filing, plaintiffs asserted that the U.S. Supreme Court decision the insurer relied on to push for dismissal of the nationwide collective action (and the New York state class action) doesn’t apply because unlike the Supreme Court case, Saul Gonzalez et al. v. Government Employees Insurance Company Inc. involves federal claims brought in federal court.

Does the 2017 Bristol-Myers Squibb v. Superior Court Decision Apply?

When filing for dismissal, Geico cited the Supreme Court’s 2017 decision in Bristol-Myers Squibb v. Superior Court. However, plaintiffs in the suit claim this decision does not apply to the current case since Bristol-Myers Squibb v. Superior Court pertained to state jurisdiction finding that California state courts could not adjudicate mass tort claims when plaintiffs were not from California. The Saul Gonzalez et al. v. Government Employees Insurance Company Inc. action is different because it concerns federal claims in federal court. Plaintiffs further argued that if the court accepted the position presented by Geico that federal courts cannot hear out-of-state claims brought under FLSA, it would effectively eliminate the collective nature of the FLSA.

California Federal Court Finds Bristol-Myers Decision Does Not Apply:

In October 2020, the California federal court’s decision stated that the Bristol-Meyers decision does not apply to FLSA claims brought in federal court (including the current action).

If you need to discuss California state labor laws or if you need to file FLSA claims, please get in touch with Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik DeBlouw LLP. Experienced employment law attorneys are ready to assist you in various law firm offices located in San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Riverside, and Chicago.

Ferra v. Loews Hollywood: Another Key 2021 California Employment Law Case

Most would agree that the California courts were pretty quiet throughout 2020, but that appears to be changing in 2021. As of now, the California Supreme Court is scheduled to see several significant employment law cases that could affect how employment law affects employers and employees throughout California. 

Ferra v. Loews Hollywood: Scheduled to Appear before California Supreme Court in 2021

Case Info: Ferra v. Loews Hollywood, Nos. B283218, Los Angeles CountySuper. Ct. No. BC586176

In 2021, Ferra v. Loews Hollywood is scheduled to appear before the California Supreme Court. The Plaintiff in the case appealed to the Supreme Court of California asking for clarification of Labor Code 226.7’s phrasing “regular rate of compensation” and what it means in a context where the employee in question receives numerous forms of wages for work performed on the job. 

The Plaintiff, Ferra, Claims Loews Hollywood Hotel Violated California Labor Law: 

Plaintiff, on behalf of herself and three alleged classes of hourly employees working at Loews Hollywood Hotels, filed a class action. The Plaintiff alleges that the employer’s calculation of the premium payment was inaccurate because the company did not provide mandatory meal breaks and rest periods as required by California labor law (Labor Code section 226.7). Based on the alleged miscalculations, the Plaintiff also alleges that Loews did not provide full payment for all hours worked due to shaving and rounding time from employee hours. The Court of Appeal found in favor of  Loew’s holding that the statute’s plain language, federal case precedent, and the statutory history all indicate a difference between the “regular rate of compensation” and the “regular rate of pay.” The court held that Loew’s “rounding policy” did not result in systematic undercompensation of Loew’s employees over time. 

What Question Does the California Supreme Court Need to Decide? 

Discussion of the case has concerned parties pointing out (and urging the California Supreme Court to hold) that “regular rate of compensation” as pertaining to meal and rest breaks is in reference to the employee’s base hourly wage. This definition provides distinction between the two oft-confused phrases, since the term “regular rate of pay” generally includes non hourly compensation. 

The California Supreme Court’s Decision on Ferra v. Loews Hollywood:

California employers and employees should watch the Ferra v. Loews Hollywood case since the California Supreme Court’s decision could affect how wages earned based on meal period penalties are calculated. The regular rate used to calculate overtime seems cumbersome for meal period penalty calculations since the regular rate of pay could include annual or quarterly bonuses (some of which could occur after the missed meal period for which the penalty is being calculated). However, “regular rate of compensation” does sound very similar to “regular rate of pay” and federal district courts have ruled both ways on the issue, so many are interested to see which way the California Supreme Court will lean on this issue.

If you have questions about California labor law violations or how employment law protects you against labor law violations, please get in touch with Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik DeBlouw LLP. Experienced employment law attorneys are ready to assist you in any one of various law firm offices located in San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Riverside, and Chicago.

Siemens Mobility Sued Over Alleged Missed Breaks and Wage Issues

Siemens Mobility is currently facing a potential class-action lawsuit after one of their material handlers, Dewitt Nunery, sued to allege wage issues, skipped lunch and rest periods, and inaccurate wage statements.

Plaintiff Claims He Was Required to Work Through Breaks:

The plaintiff in the case is a Siemens Mobility warehouse worker and material handler with an hourly pay rate of $16.37. Nunery claims Siemens required him to work through breaks at the Sacramento County train factory. Nunery claims that in addition to not getting a chance to take his breaks, he was not offered accurate overtime payment for missed break time.

Skipping “Paid” Breaks Should Add Time to the End of the Shift

Since rest breaks are "paid time," skipping rest breaks during a work shift should add that time to the end of the shift, but Nunery claims it wasn't. Still working at the train factory, Nunery alleges the company pressured him to work over seven days consecutively without overtime pay. Siemens train factory has been growing significantly throughout the last several years, with numerous large orders coming in from throughout the United States and Canada. The factory fulfills orders for trains, train sets, and light rail vehicles.

Seeking Legal Help to Resolve an Employment Law Violation:

Originally, Acara Solutions Inc., a staffing agency based out of New York, placed Nunery at the Siemens train factory. Later he worked for Siemens directly. Nunery claims he experienced the same payment issues and employment law violations under both Acara Solutions Inc. and Siemens. Nunery seeks penalties under the Private Attorneys General Act and seeks class-action for others in similar situations at the company. Nunery's attorney filed a notice of violations of the California Labor Code in October. In December, they filed a civil suit in Sacramento County Superior Court. Effective February 10, 2020, the case was moved from Sacramento County court to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.

The Suit Alleges Numerous Employment Law Violations:

Nunery's suit alleges meal break violations, rest break violations, minimum wage violations, and overtime pay violations. Nunery also claims that the company failed to provide accurate and itemized wage statements and failed to provide Nunery with a day off for seven consecutive days on the job.

The Siemens factory, located just south of Sacramento, is the third largest manufacturer in the region employing 1,500 workers.

If you need to talk to someone about violations in the workplace or if you need to file an overtime pay lawsuit, get in touch with Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik DeBlouw LLP. Experienced employment law attorneys are ready to assist you in any one of various law firm offices located in San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Riverside, and Chicago.

Supreme Court of California Agrees to Review Appellate Decision on Meal and Rest Period Case

The Supreme Court of California will review the California Court of Appeal's decision in the meal and rest period premium calculation case, Ferra v. Loews Hollywood Hotel, LLC. The Supreme Court will consider the term "regular rate of compensation" in Labor Code section 226.7.

In Labor Code 226.7, the term "regular rate of compensation" is used when requiring employers to provide employees with payment when required meal periods and rest breaks are not provided. The Supreme Court of California will consider the question of whether or not the "regular rate of compensation" in Labor Code 226.7 should be interpreted the same and require the same calculations as the phrase "regular rate of pay" in Labor Code Section 510(a), which references overtime calculation requirements.

What is California Labor Code 226.7?

In California Labor Code Section 226.7 employers that fail to comply with employment law by providing employees with required meal, and rest periods are required to pay the employee an additional hour of payment. According to the section referenced, the payment must be "at the employee's regular rate of compensation for each workday" that the employer does not provide a meal or rest or recovery period.

What is California Labor Code 510?

In California, Labor Code Section 510, employers are required to pay employees overtime at either one and one-half or twice the employee's "regular rate of pay" if the employee works more than full-time hours (as determined by law).

Defining Section 510's "Regular Rate of Pay:"

Previously, Section 510's "regular rate of pay" was clarified by the Supreme Court of California, determining that calculations should include additional compensation outside of the employee's straight hourly rate. Additional compensation could consist of anything from commissions to split-shift differentials to nondiscretionary bonuses, etc. There is no similar California case law that provides clarification for calculating Section 226.7's "regular rate of compensation." The question forms the basis of deliberations for the court considering Ferra.

The plaintiff in the case is an hourly employee of Loews Hollywood Hotel, LLC, that brought a putative class action against the hotel giant, alleging that the company inaccurately calculated meal and rest period premiums in violation of Labor Code Section 226.7. The plaintiff argued that Loews should have calculated the regular rate of compensation for payment due to missed meal and rest periods in the same manner used to calculate the regular rate of pay used to determine payment for overtime hours. The Court of Appeal came back with an employer-friendly ruling, disagreeing with the argument presented by the plaintiff in the case.

The plaintiff appealed to the Supreme Court of California, asking that Labor Code Section 226.7's terminology receive clarification.

If you have questions about California labor law violations or how California responds to employment law violations, please get in touch with Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik DeBlouw LLP. Experienced employment law attorneys are ready to assist you in any one of various law firm offices located in San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Riverside, and Chicago.

Discouraging Workers from Taking Meal Breaks Cost Walmart over $6M

Two Walmart workers filed a California class-action lawsuit alleging lost meal breaks due to mandatory security checks. The plaintiffs, Chelsea Hamilton and Alyssa Hernandez, contended that the required security search took a lot of time,  was intrusive and embarrassing.  Plaintiffs did not claim that Walmart prohibited them from taking their break, but they did insist they were discouraged. Discouraging employees from taking their legally protected meal break cost Walmart $6.1 million when the jury awarded Walmart workers in April.

Throughout the years, lawsuits filed by employees have resulted in rulings on what employers can do, what employers cannot do, and what employers are required to do in different legal areas. One of the most common disputed areas is rest and meal breaks. This case makes it clear that employers may not make it too hard or too much of a hassle for their employees to take their legally protected meal breaks. Some say that “meal break discouragement” theory could be an important new element of California labor law.

According to the California Labor Code, non-exempt workers are entitled to receive a 30-minute meal break if they work over 5 hours in one day. Employers are not required to pay employees for the meal break. Employees who work more than 10 hours in one day are entitled to additional meal breaks. Employers are also required to provide employees with 10-minute breaks every 4 hours on the job. Unlike meal breaks, employers are required by law to pay employees during their mandatory 10-minute breaks.

Employers who do not comply with meal and rest break law are required to provide employees who missed mandatory breaks with one additional hour of regular pay for each day during which a meal break violation occurred. Another extra hour of payment is required for each day during which a rest break violation occurred during their work shift.

Past lawsuits and findings of the court have made it clear that both rest and meal breaks must be free of job duties and uninterrupted (this includes running errands for the company/employer or being on call).  

If you are experiencing meal and rest break violations in the workplace or if your employer does not offer meal or rest breaks to employees, please get in touch with one of the experienced employment law attorneys at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP can help. Find the employment law office nearest you: San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange or Chicago.

Wavedivision Holdings, LLC Faces Class Action Lawsuit for Alleged Meal and Rest Break Violations

Wavedivision Holdings, LLC, a video, internet and phone services company, faces a class action lawsuit alleging that they failed to provide required overtime wages, legally required off-duty meal breaks and mandatory rest periods to their California employees. Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw filed the class action on February 9, 2018.

The class action against Wavedivision Holdings, LLC is currently pending in the San Mateo County Superior Court, Case No. 18CIV00684.

Allegations in the class action include:

·      Failure to lawfully calculate overtime

·      Failure to pay overtime

·      Refusing to allow employees to take off duty meal and rest breaks

·      Refusing to fully relieve employees of job duties for meal periods

Details in the lawsuit indicated that employees were sometimes unable to take off duty meal breaks or rest periods. When they were provided with meal breaks, they were sometimes not fully relieved of their job duties. According to allegations made in the class action lawsuit, Wavedivision Holdings employees were required to work over five hours in a shift with no off-duty meal break; a violation of California labor law.

California labor law requires that all employers offer their employees who are working shifts over five hours in length with an uninterrupted meal break of at least thirty minutes before the employee’s fifth hour of work is completed. California employers are required to provide a second uninterrupted meal break for employees who work ten hours.

According to the lawsuit, class members were paid using a non-discretionary incentive program. Under the program, Wavedivision Holdings offered employees hourly compensation with additional incentive compensation if they were able to successfully meet performance goals put in place by the company. Yet when the company calculated the overtime rate of pay for these same employees, the company allegedly did not include the incentive compensation as part of the “regular rate of pay.” In doing so, the company or Defendant, Wavedivision Holdings LLC, was miscalculating their employees’ overtime pay rate as a matter of policy.

If you have questions about how to file a class action lawsuit or how to qualify as a member of a class action lawsuit, please get in touch with one of the experienced class action and employment law attorneys at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP.

Tentative Class Certification Offered to Thousands of Wells Fargo Employees in Meal Break Row

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Brian C. Walsh, a California state judge, granted a tentative class certification to thousands of Wells Fargo workers. The employees claim that they were not paid appropriately (in accordance with employment law) for missed mealtimes. They also claim that Wells Fargo did not provide pay stubs as required. While the judge tentatively granted class certification, he did end up withholding his final ruling after hearing the bank’s argument that it used an individualized system to document meal premiums for their workers and that the individualized system does not support this type of class wide litigation.

Silvia Hernandez, former Wells Fargo customer service representative, filed the motion to certify two classes in the litigation. The banking giant, Wells Fargo, opposed the motion. Prior to the hearing, the judge issued a tentative written decision to both parties that he was going to grant the motion. But after the hearing, the judge stated that he needed to give the matter additional thought. He specifically said that he wasn’t actually changing the “tentative,” but that he was going to think about the matter.

The two classes off workers that Hernandez proposed in the motion were divided into two categories: a class based on the lawsuit’s wage settlement claims, and a class based on the second claims focused on the meal break violations. Most of the arguments during the hearing focused on the second of the two claims: meal break violations.

Hernandez, the original Plaintiff in the case, alleges that when Wells Fargo pays one of their non-exempt workers for a meal break that was missed, they base the pay on the worker’s hourly pay, but that the missed meal break pay should actually be calculated based on the worker’s total pay or compensation which would include bonuses. The bank claims that their calculations are based on self-reporting done by workers on an “honor system.” Thus, since they don’t verify the information provided by the workers – there’s a question regarding whether or not they can be held legally responsible for legal claims related to the amount of pay.

If you have questions about California labor law violations or if you need assistance with wage and hour or overtime violations, please get in touch with one of the experienced California employment law attorneys at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP.