Class Actions Involving Wage and Hour Violations
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was enacted to require a national minimum wage. Tipped employees and delivery drivers have rights to minimum wage. Recently, many cases involving pizza delivery drivers have been brought due to these violations. If you are a driver, we are investigating these cases and would like to hear from you – please contact us.
Another area of hour violation occurs when an employer decides not to compensate an employee for “donning and doffing.” Donning and doffing is a term that describes time spent by an employee changing in and out of required protective gear for a job. Some aspects of donning and doffing are required to be compensated by employers.
The FLSA does not apply to independent contractors. However an employer cannot simply reclassify all their employees as independent contractors to get around paying them as employees with benefits. This topic is covered on another page, click here.
Class Actions for Break, Meal, Lunch, Dinner and Rest Periods
The Department of Labor’s mimimum rest period laws can be found here. The minimum meal (“lunch”) break laws and can be found here.
Minimum breaks and meal or rest times are required by federal and state laws. Each state has their own laws in addition to the federal protections for workers. For example, in California, for each work period, an employer must provide a rest break of at least 10 minutes and meal break of 30 minutes if the minimum shift requirement is met. The minimum shift is 3.5 hours, so any shift that is more than 3.5 hours requires a 10 minute break in the middle of the shift. The Department of Labor states, “ Paid 10-minute rest period for each 4 hours worked or major fraction thereof; as practicable, in middle of each work period. Not required for employees whose total daily work time is less than 3 and ½ hours.” The Department of Labor’s mimimum rest period laws can be found here.
The Department of Labor also publishes the minimum meal break laws and can be found here. In California, for example, the law allows ”[A] ½ hour, after 5 hours, except when workday will be completed in 6 hours or less and there is mutual employer/employee consent to waive meal period.”
