The United States District Court for the Eastern District of California recently ordered the preliminary certification of a conditional class action settlement involving various California wage and hours laws.
In the case, the plaintiff was a non-high volume installer of alarm systems who contended that the defendant violated California wage and hour laws by paying class members pursuant to a wage policy that failed to compensate them for off-the-clock work, such as traveling between customer sites and picking up supplies from warehouses. The plaintiff alleged that the defendant also under-calculated their overtime rate, which must be “at least one and one-half times their regular rate of pay under California law.” The plaintiff also alleged that the defendant failed to “reimburse class members for necessary business expenses and provide compliant itemized wage statements.”