Emily Sortor  |  December 10, 2019

Category: Labor & Employment

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Cannabis workers deserve fair labor laws too.Cannabis workers have filed a class action lawsuit against Loud Buddha LLC and Pura Cali Management Corp., claiming that the companies violated California fair labor laws by failing to provide sufficient breaks, failing to appropriately record hours, and not paying employees all of the wages they were due.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union reports that the cannabis industry is the fastest growing industry in the country. As more workers engage with the industry, the issue of workers’ rights in that industry is of increasing concern.

The Loud Buddha fair labor laws violation lawsuit was filed by Casey D. and Natalia C.. The two workers say that they were employed to cultivate and harvest cannabis from Pure Cali’s farm in Lake County from October 2019 to November 2019. They say that they were paid hourly, and usually worked more than 40 hours per week. 

The cannabis workers unpaid wages class action lawsuit says that Casey responded to a Craig’s List ad stating that the company was hiring, and was told by a recruiter that there was work available for both him and others, and the recruiter allegedly suggested that he should think of other people who might be interested in employment. Allegedly, Casey was told that he and other workers would be paid around $15 per hour. 

Allegedly, Casey and Natalia drove to Eureka, California, to meet with a Loud Buddha supervisor, Theodore Cross, who said that they would be hired for a “trim job,” which involved cultivating, harvesting, bucking, mulching, and freezing marijuana plants. They say that soon after they traveled to Pura Cali’s marijuana farm in Lake County, California, as part of a group of five people.

The Pura Cali working conditions class action lawsuit says that Casey, Natalia, and others were required to work around twelve hours per day, seven days a week. They say that this constituted a significant amount of overtime, because they were working more than forty hours per week in a given week. Per California law, workers are guaranteed overtime if they work more than 40 hours in a given week or eight consecutive hours in a given day.

The workers claim that Loud Buddha and Pura Cali tracked workers’ time on loose-leaf notebooks. Allegedly, the hours recorded were typically incorrect and were rounded down by the companies. The Pura Cali workers’ hours class action lawsuit says that the company avoided paying overtime by paying workers at a flat hourly rate of $15 per hour, and not calculating overtime. Allegedly, the company paid workers by filling envelopes with cash.

However, the company allegedly sometimes did not pay the promised $15 per hour. Allegedly, workers were often short changed, were not paid in a timely manner, or were not paid at all.

Additionally, they were allegedly required to work through their unpaid meal times and not provided with appropriate breaks, as required by California law. 

The Califoria fair labor laws cannabis class action lawsuit says that Pura Cali and Loud Buddha LLC did not reimburse workers for expenses that they incurred while performing their work, including hotel stays, meals, travel, and other expenses.

Additionally, the workers claim that their employers expected the workers to remain in the mountains, working on the farm all day, every scheduled day, and were very strict about this requirement. Allegedly, the companies threatened discipline against workers if they did not comply.

The Pura Cali Loud Buddha Cannabis Worker Wage and Hour Class Action Lawsuit is Casey Denning et al. v. Loud Buddha LLC et al., Case No. 3:19-cv-07665, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Eureka Division.

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