Violations of the laws that govern the minimum wage, overtime and any other issue that impacts employee pay rarely happen to just one person. If an employer is making mistakes or consciously disregarding its duties to its employees regarding pay issues, it is very likely that the issues are systemic and affect multiple current employees as well as past employees.
By clearly ascertaining the types of wage and hour violations an employer is engaging in, it is possible to identify other workers who may be victims as well. If the employer has been taking advantage of multiple employees, each employee’s case can be strengthened by combining them into a single class action lawsuit.
Class action lawsuits allow individuals to combine their claims. By combining multiple claims, a pattern of wage and hour abuses by an employer can be much more clearly illustrated.
Common Wage And Hour Issues That Can Be The Basis For A Class Action Lawsuit Include:
Unpaid Overtime
Unpaid wages for all hours worked
Unpaid Minimum Wage.
Being forced to work during lunch or meal breaks
Misclassification of non-exempt (“salaried”) employees
Examples Of Recent Class Action Cases
Unpaid Overtime— Class Action Cases against URS Corporation and Battelle Memorial Institute for unpaid overtime for off-the-clock hours worked by employees in doing work-related pre-shift and post-shift activities, and working through unpaid lunch breaks. These cases settled for approximately 14 million dollars.
Unpaid Wages for all Hours Worked— Cases against Call Center Companies for not paying employees for all the hours worked during a workday.
Unpaid Minimum Wage— Class Action Case against Limousine Company in Las Vegas for failure to pay minimum wage.
Misclassification— Class Action Case again Qiagen, Inc. for misclassifying its Field Service Specialists or Field Service Engineers/Technicians as salaried exempt employees and not paying overtime.
At Preston & Brar LLC, we understand the many ways that employers take advantage of their employees. With more than 25 years of combined experience and a focus on wage and hour issues, we also understand the protections workers enjoy under the law. Our firm is committed to helping workers build the strongest cases to protect their rights and to secure full compensation for any violations of those rights. In many situations, a class action suit is the best means for workers to combine the strengths of their individual cases into a single, more formidable case.