Unpaid Wages Legal News Articles & Interviews

Los Angeles, CA On August 24, the District Court for the Central District of California gave final approval to a settlement under which ExxonMobil, PBF Energy Limited and Torrance Refining Company, LLC will pay a total of nearly $4.4 million to settle a class action lawsuit in which refinery workers claim that they were denied the paid rest breaks required under California labor law.

Los Angeles, CA Farmers Insurance has agreed to settle a California wage and hour lawsuit brought by Famers special investigators alleging failure to pay overtime, including meal breaks and rest periods. The settlement includes anyone who worked in California for Farmers as a special investigator between 2013 and 2018. And this is not the first time Famers has settled an overtime claim.

Manhattan, NY A sexual harassment and retaliation settlement was in the spotlight, this past July. It involved more than 25 construction workers who were subjected to physical assaults and other types of harassment, and some workers were retaliated against after complaining to supervisors. “It’s so important that these women supported and corroborated each other,” says attorney Vincent White.  “It is never okay for someone to harass you at work.”

San Francisco, CA Bradley et al v. T-Mobile US Inc. et al., a long-running lawsuit first filed in 2017, alleges that T-Mobile’s Facebook recruitment practices violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). The nationwide, class action lawsuit also alleges violations of the California labor code and other state laws.

San Francisco, CA  Two federal appeals courts have or will consider whether Lyft and GrubHub drivers are engaged in interstate commerce , and so exempt from the requirements of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). The California labor lawsuit. Rogers v. Lyft, Inc., began as a dispute about the drivers’ lack of paid sick leave. The drivers’ appeal from a decision of the Northern District of California will be heard by the Ninth Circuit. On August 19 the Ninth Circuit held that Amazon last-mile delivery drivers were engaged in interstate commerce even when they never crossed state lines.

Los Angeles, CA Over the course of three summers, former SpaceX intern Julia Crowley-Farenga claims that she was sexually harassed. In her California labor lawsuit, the (now) NASA engineer claims she was retaliated against for filing a sexual harassment complaint to human resources of Elon Musk’s rocket company.

San Jose, CA The mayor of San Jose, Sam Liccardo, is a smart guy. He understands that the public have a love-hate relationship with “gig companies” like Uber and Lyft, and he also understands that there has to be a model of “give and take” from both sides, i.e., the California labor law regulators and leading gig companies.

San Francisco, CA Attorney Winni Kao with the Asian Law Caucus wants workers to know there are community groups and government agencies to help with California labor violations, particularly wage theft. “We encourage workers to stand together as they are likely all experiencing the same violations,” says Kao. Such was the case with Kome Japanese Seafood Buffet workers. This case illustrates that with brave workers and community support, employers are on the hook. Kome owners will pay $2.6 million to 133 workers.

Los Angeles, CA The bad news for lay teachers is that on July 8, in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, the U.S. Supreme Court severely limited the rights of Catholic school elementary teachers to sue for employment discrimination under the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Justice Sotomayor captured the stunned reaction in her dissent: “That cannot be right.”

Los Angeles, CA On July 1 the minimum wage rate increased in 13 California cities and counties, including Los Angeles and San Francisco. Most minimum wage workers in these jurisdictions should have already seen the difference. These increases also ripple through California prevailing wage laws in less obvious ways. Employers who fail to comply with the full implications of the required wage increases may not have seen wage and hour lawsuits yet, but they likely will.