Coca-Cola Agrees to $750,000 Wage and Hour Settlement

The Coca-Cola Company has agreed to pay $750,000 to settle a wage and hour class action lawsuit brought by plaintiffs who accused the company of failing to pay its employees for commuting time, vacation pay and cell phone expenses.

According to lead plaintiff Daniel Ambriz’s wage and hour lawsuit, current and former customer service technicians who responded to and repaired problems reported by Coca-Cola fountain soda machine customers were not compensated for their time commuting from home to their first job site of the day, traveling in between job sites throughout the workday, and commuting home from their last job site of the day, all while driving a Coca-Cola company van.

They also alleged in their wage and hour class action lawsuit that Coca-Cola forced them to unlawfully forfeit their vacation pay based on the company’s “use it or lose it” vacation policy. Further, Coca-Cola allegedly deducted monthly from the technicians’ paycheck money for company-issued cell phones.

The unpaid wages lawsuit was filed in July 2013 in federal court in Northern California.

Before agreeing to the wage and hour class action settlement, Coca-Cola had argued that it was not required to pay for commute time because the technicians were not required to use the company’s vans to commute between work and home and that commute time should not be paid because the company did not exert “sufficient control” over the technician’s activities during that time.

As for the vacation pay claim, the beverage maker argued in court filings that when it changed its vacation policy in 2012, it paid out all accrued but unused vacation time dating to 2008.

The cell phone deductions, according to Coca-Cola, were made with the employees’ consent and were for their personal calls. The employees had the option of opting out of the program.

There are 86 Class Members who worked for the company between July 31, 2009, and the day the court approves the class action settlement, which is currently awaiting a judge’s approval. Each Class Member will receive about $7,500, according to the joint motion. Lead plaintiff Ambriz is to receive $10,000. He worked at the company from 1998 to 2013.

In 2013, Coca-Cola prevailed in a proposed collective action in Florida filed by a bottling and distributing unit employee who accused the company of denying him overtime pay.  The plaintiff in that case voluntarily dismissed the class action lawsuit.

A year earlier, the beverage maker successfully defended a $19 million class action lawsuit when a federal judge in California ruled that wage statements that require employees to do “simple math” to calculate their pay do not constitute an injury under state labor laws.

California has strict overtime laws that require, among other things, that employers provide meal breaks, rest breaks, as well as pay a minimum wage of $9 an hour.

The Coca-Cola Wage and Hour Class Action Lawsuit is Daniel Amrbiz v. The Coca-Cola Company, Case No. 2:14-cv-00715-SVM, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

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