Class Cert. Denied in Nordstrom California Labor Lawsuit

A California judge recently denied a plaintiff’s request for class certification in an upcoming wage and hour lawsuit accusing Nordstrom Inc. of violating California labor laws. The unpaid overtime class action lawsuit alleges that Nordstrom failed to pay its workers for time spent waiting in line and undergoing bag checks during their work shifts.

The wage and hour class action lawsuit was brought by California resident Shamea O., a former Nordstrom employee. In the Nordstrom unpaid overtime class action lawsuit, Shamea alleges that Nordstrom’s employee bag checks were absolutely required by the company, but admitted in her initial deposition that employees could avoid the bag checks by choosing to not bring bags into the workplace. Loss prevention checks were required of employees at the beginning and end of rest breaks for employees carrying bags out of the building, according to the wage and hour class action lawsuit.

Certifying a Class for California Labor Law Class Action Lawsuits

In order for any type of class action lawsuit to succeed, a judge must first certify the Class’s potential plaintiffs. So in order for a Class to be certified, it must initially meet four requirements:

1. that there are enough plaintiffs involved;
2. that each member of the Class shares questions of law or fact;
3. that the Class representative has claims and defenses typical of the other Class Members; and
4. the Class representative must fairly and adequately protect the interests of the other Class Members.

In the Nordstrom wage and hour class action lawsuit discussed above, the judge stated that Class was not denied certification due to a lack of common issues but because it did not meet the predominance test.

Shamea’s California labor law lawsuit sought to certify a Class that would include every employee who had worked for Nordstrom over the last four years. According to the judge, it was possible a large percentage of the proposed members were never harmed by the bag checking policy if they never brought a bag into work. According to Nordstrom, analyzed reports suggest that over a quarter of employees working for the clothing came and left work without any bags.

In denying the class certification in this unpaid overtime class action lawsuit, the judge also noted that this was not a case of lapses in enforcement in the part of Nordstrom. The judge explained when a well-established company policy is challenged, that defendants cannot merely claim poor management to defend against class certification.

California Labor Code Class Action Lawsuits

Federal and state labor laws prohibit employers from requiring and/or allowing employees to work off-the-clock without pay. This includes waiting for work and pre-shift and post-shift duties.

Several class action lawsuits have been filed in California state and federal courts over labor law violations similar to Shamea’s wage laws class action lawsuit. This last year, Apple Inc. has faced similar legal battles in a California labor code class action lawsuit for allegedly requiring retail workers to undergo unpaid bag and gadget checks. Similarly in 2013, a judge denied class action certification for a California employee rights lawsuit against Macy’s Corporate Services Inc. Macy’s also faced allegations that they did not pay employees for loss-prevention checks.

The Nordstrom California Labor Law Class Action Lawsuit is Case No. 2:13-CV-05639-ODW-JCG, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

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