$2.8M CVS Unpaid Overtime Class Action Settlement Approved

CVS Pharmacy Inc. will pay $2.8 million to settle claims brought in a CVS unpaid overtime class action lawsuit accusing the nationwide drug chain of not paying overtime.

A California judge has approved the CVS unpaid overtime class action settlement, which will award damages to 627 Southern California CVS pharmacists who were required to work seven days in a row without overtime pay.

This is the first settlement of six similar pending unpaid overtime lawsuits brought under California’s labor law.

Plaintiff Connie Meneses filed her CVS unpaid overtime lawsuit in August 2012, accusing CVS of improperly forcing pharmacists to work seven days in a row without paying overtime for the seventh day, something that California law mandates.

California Labor Code specifically addresses pharmacists and contains the requirement that they be given a day off after six days of work. Pharmacists who work seven days in a row must receive overtime compensation, according to California labor law.

CVS argued that because the company has a Sunday to Saturday work week, the pharmacists were provided one day off for each seven-day period.

But according to the Overtime Pay Laws Resource Center, interpreting the California labor code on a Sunday to Saturday work week would allow CVS to circumvent the code’s intent.

“For instance, CVS could schedule pharmacists for seven or more days in a row, like Wednesday through Tuesday, and avoid the overtime requirement because the pharmacist only worked four days in the first week and three days in the second,” according to the legal group.

“In 2013, the court agreed with the pharmacists and concluded that the way the state law is phrased the pharmacists’ seven-day period does not have to be a regular Sunday to Saturday work week schedule,” it adds.

California overtime law requires employers pay employees overtime at a rate of one and one-half times the employee’s regular rate of pay for every hour worked beyond 8 hours in a single day or 40 hours in a single week. Same goes for the first eight hours worked on the seventh consecutive day of work in a workweek.

Workers are to receive double their regular rate of pay for all hours worked above 12 hours in any workday and for all hours worked in excess of eight on the seventh consecutive day of work in a workweek.

Salaried employees must also be paid overtime unless they meet the requirements for exempt status, meaning the California overtime law does not apply to a particular classification of employees.

The most common exemption categories include executive, administrative, professional, and computer professional. If you don’t meet all of the requirements for at least one of these exemptions then you are entitled to overtime pay in California. Other specialty exemptions exist for people who work in non-traditional jobs, such as sheepherders, irrigators, and carnival workers.

An executive exemption is met when an employee earns a salary of at least $640 per week. The executive must also supervise at least two subordinates, have the ability to hire and fire (directly or indirectly), be the manager of a particular department, exercise independent business judgment, and spend more than 50 percent of the time doing the aforementioned duties.

The CVS Unpaid Overtime Class Action Lawsuit is Connie Meneses, et al. v. CVS Pharmacy Inc., et al., Case No. BC489739, in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles.

Join a Free Unpaid Overtime, Wage & Hour Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you were forced to work off the clock or without overtime pay in California within the past 2 to 3 years, you have rights – and you don’t have to take on the company alone.

Get a Free Case Evaluation Now