Medical Facility Hit with California Wage and Hour Class-Action Lawsuit

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San Francisco, CA: It’s a fairly standard set of guidelines aimed at protecting health and well-being, together with maintaining and promoting fairness, for non-exempt California workers. So often, however, these basic tenets of employment are either set aside and ignored, or bypassed out of apathy or poor management.

No one is rushing to judgment as to what predicated the basis for a California Wage and Hour lawsuit recently filed and pending in San Francisco County Superior Court. However, a proposed class action against Total Renal Care, Inc. suggests a number of allegations that include missed rest breaks and meal periods, and failure to pay overtime in accordance with California wage law.

The State of California maintains a number of key statutes and guidelines that guarantee non-exempt workers receive extra pay for working in excess of eight hours in any given workday or 40 hours in any given workweek. Additionally, workers are to be provided with rest breaks and 30-minute meal periods that are mandated by law to be taken prior to an employee’s fifth consecutive hour of work.

The California wage and hour class action alleges that hourly, non-exempt employees at Total Renal Care were not able to do this. Missed meal periods and rest breaks suggest that workers are continuing to toil during times when they should be at rest, which could impact an employee’s overtime rate: to wit, an employee is now working in excess of eight hours in a workday or 40 hours in a workweek if rest and meal periods are missed.

The California wage and hour class action against Total Renal Care also alleges that the defendant manipulated time records in an effort to avoid paying overtime to qualifying workers. Under California law, salaried employees who fill a management function and are paid a certain salary threshold can be considered exempt from overtime, as they receive a much higher stipend than hourly workers and it is thus expected that from time to time, managerial and salaried personnel would put in extra hours on occasion, as needed.

According to court records, the defendant failed to “record and pay Plaintiff and other California Class Members for the actual amount of time these employees worked, including overtime worked.”

Hourly employees, who make less, are not exempt from overtime and thus are due under California law extra pay for additional hours worked, as well as state-mandated provisions for meal breaks and rest periods.

The California Wage and Hour lawsuit is Melynda Singh et al v. Total Renal Care, Inc., Case No. CGC-16-550847, filed March 8, 2016 in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of San Francisco.

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