Cintas Settles Laundry Workers' Class Action for $6.5 Million

Los Angeles, CA: Workers United/SEIU announced today that industrial launderer Cintas has agreed to pay $6.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging that it violated the City of Los Angeles Living Wage Ordinance. The union, which represents 70 percent of laundry workers in California, believes the settlement is the largest monetary amount ever paid for alleged violations of a living wage ordinance. Workers filed the lawsuit in 2004.

The settlement provides $3.3 million in back wages and interest for more than 500 Southern California Cintas laundry workers at the company's Ontario, Pico Rivera, and Whittier locations. Cintas will pay an additional $250,000 as penalties, a portion of which will be provided to the State of California for wage and hour enforcement under the Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). In addition to back pay, interest, and penalties, Cintas has agreed to pay more than $2.6 million in legal fees for the five-year class action case. When the settlement is finalized, it will be presented to the Los Angeles Superior Court for approval.

The Los Angeles settlement comes almost one year after Cintas was required to pay almost $1.4 million in back wages, interest and penalties to hundreds of Northern California Cintas workers and the State of California in a case where Cintas was found to have violated the City of Hayward's Living Wage Ordinance.