Amazon Class Action Lawsuit Claims Employee Wages Cut

Amazon.com Inc. has been hit with a wage and hour class action lawsuit, alleging the online retailer took off at least 30 minutes of California warehouse workers’ wages if they clocked in four minutes late for their shifts, an action the plaintiffs allege is a form of wage theft.

Plaintiff Eric Chavez filed the Amazon wage and hour class action lawsuit, alleging that Amazon fulfillment warehouses located in California employed a wage policy that reduced an employee’s shift time or vacation time by half or full hour increments if they clocked in late.

The wage and hour class action lawsuit claims that the Amazon warehouse packers were given three-minute grace periods to clock in, but if they went beyond the grace period, Amazon would take away 30 minutes from their shift time or from their vacation time. If a warehouse employee had the misfortune of clocking in four minutes late at the beginning of a shift and after a break, the employee’s wage or vacation time would be docked by 52 minutes.

This wage policy applied even if the employee was late clocking in because they were waiting for their turn at the clock, leading the plaintiff to claim that “despite every intention of being ready, willing, and able to clock into a shift or back from a break, delays occurred that were solely in the control of the defendant joint management.”

The plaintiff further claims that in addition to the wage cuts, the Amazon employees were assessed discipline points for clocking in late and lacked any manager assessment or discretion as to the reason behind the late clock-in event.

 Amazon Wage and Hour Lawsuit Claims

This Amazon wage and hour class action lawsuit brings several claims against the online retailer for California labor code violations, including improper deduction of wages; improper forfeiture of unused, accrued and vested vacation/PTO wages; failure to timely pay all wages due upon separation of employment; failure to provide accurate itemized wage statements; and unfair and deceptive business practices.

Chavez seeks to bring this wage and hour class action lawsuit on behalf of himself, as well as on behalf of a Class that would include: “All current and former California-based non-exempt hourly employees of Defendant [Amazon] at any time between four years prior to the commencement of this action and continuing to the date of commencement of trial in this action,” who were subjected to this blanket clock policy.

The Amazon Wage and Hour Class Action Lawsuit is Chavez v. Amazon.com LLC, Case No. CGC-15-545157, in the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of San Francisco.

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