Verizon Reaches Unpaid Overtime Class Action Settlement

Verizon California Inc. has recently reached a multimillion dollar settlement in an unpaid overtime class action lawsuit.

According to the plaintiffs in the wage and hour lawsuit, Verizon did not properly document employees’ pay, making it functionally impossible to determine if employees were receiving appropriate wages. The plaintiffs in the unpaid overtime class action lawsuit allege that this violated California wage and hour laws.

The wage and hour lawsuit was initially filed by a former Verizon field tech, plaintiff Hector Banda. Banda filed his unpaid overtime lawsuit in April. His Verizon wage and hour lawsuit was combined with another class action lawsuit against Verizon, filed by Plaintiff Scott Cerkoney, which made similar claims.

Ultimately, the wage and hour class action lawsuit applies to more than 6,800 employees. According to this wage and hours lawsuit, Verizon issued 223,000 wage statements to the employees included in the class action wage and hours lawsuit between April of 2009 and May of 2011.

The Verizon wage and hour lawsuit holds that these statements lacked crucial data, including the beginning and ending of pay periods, hourly rates of pay, and the number of hours worked. Without this information, the wage and hour lawsuit alleged, it was not possible to figure out key details of employee compensation, which allegedly violated the California Labor Code and the Private Attorney Act.

These laws are similar to the national Fair Labor Standards Act in that they are laws that establish expectations and regulations for employers with regard to employee pay. In this case, the law requires employers to give employees detailed records of their compensation as a means of ensuring transparency, and making it harder for employers to skirt the rules.

As of Oct. 22, Verizon and plaintiffs have reached a preliminary settlement for millions of dollars in the wage and hour lawsuit. The class action settlement was for $15 million, and will be paid out to employees paid biweekly in California who received itemized income statements during the period established in the wage and hours lawsuit. The settlement motion was approved by Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff of California Superior Court.

In class action lawsuits, groups of plaintiffs allege that they have suffered similar harm under similar circumstances. Group lawsuits like wage and hour class action lawsuits help streamline the legal process by combining tens, hundreds, or even thousands of individual suits into a single wages and hours class action lawsuit.

The Verizon Unpaid Overtime Class Action Lawsuit is Hector Banda, et al., v. Verizon California, et al., Case No. BC442358, filed in the Superior Court for the State of California, County of Los Angeles.

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