Unpaid Wages Legal News Articles & Interviews

Santa Clara, CA California's attorney general has taken the lead in supporting Washington State’s decision to enforce minimum wage laws, which includes GEO, a private prison company that, since at least 2005, has paid thousands of detainee workers $1 per day for labor that is necessary to keep its facility operational. The private prison company has appealed a Washington district court ruling that it owes back pay to detainees.

New York, NY An arbitrator found that Dell Technologies discriminated against 61-year-old Cicilia Gilbert, a transgender employee by firing her during her gender transition, said Gilbert’s labor law attorney. According to Cicilia Gilbert’s lawsuit, the tech giant terminated her in the middle of her transition and a co-worker advised her not to come out of the closet. 

Los Angeles, CA Over 9,000 Equinox employees, including personal trainers and group fitness instructors, have been given the green light by a California federal judge to have their wage claims and other California labor laws resolved by three class actions rather than individually.

San Francisco, CA Minor league baseball players won’t have their day in court involving a minimum wage complaint that was filed eight years ago. The California labor trial was slated for June 1 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

San Francisco, CA On April 29, the Northern District of California granted final approval to a $15.8 million settlement in a class action California labor lawsuit brought by 273 franchisees who claimed that Matco Tools classified them as independent contractors to avoid paying overtime, reimbursing expenses and providing accurate wage statements. The deal includes a $13.5 million cash payment. Distributors who terminated their distributorships on or before September 8, 2021, may also share in a fund that provides $2.3 million in debt relief.

Washington, DC On January 10, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Delta Airline’s petition for certiorari, in which it sought review of the question of whether the Constitution’s Article I Commerce Clause and the federal Airline Deregulation Act (ADA) exempted airlines from California labor law’s wage and hour regulations. This left intact the Ninth Circuit’s decision that the airline violated California minimum wage, overtime, meal and break, timekeeping, and wage statement rules.

Portland, ME Flowers Foods has been given the green light by a U.S. District judge to settle a unpaid wages class action lawsuit with its current and former distributors in Maine to the tune of $23 million. No wonder the cost of bread has risen. It can’t be blamed solely on supply shortages.

Santa Clara, CA If Major League Baseball and its teams have their way, minor leaguers will be prohibited from mentioning their purported poor living conditions at a California wage trial, arguing that the evidence is irrelevant and could unfairly sway jurors.

San Francisco, CA  The class and collective wage claims of minor league baseball players in the long running Senne v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball will finally go to trial on June 1 in the Northern District of California. The only remaining questions for the California players, according to the plaintiffs’ trial plan, involve the determination of hours worked and the damages and penalties owed under California labor law.

Brooklyn, NY  Two Brooklyn Home Care Service agencies failed to cheat both the federal government and their health care aids and now they have to pay nearly $7 million in back wages and Medicaid payments following two settlement agreements with New York Attorney General Letitia James.