Class Action Lawsuit Says Walgreens Pharmacy Services Violates California Work Law

A class action lawsuit claims that Walgreens Pharmacy Services Midwest LLC violated California work law by not paying employees enough overtime and giving them insufficient breaks.

The Walgreens wage and hour class action lawsuit was filed by Christina Epstein. She says that Walgreens Co. and Walgreens Pharmacy Services Midwest LLC were her joint employers. Allegedly, she worked for Walgreens as a Senior Pharmacy Tech. Allegedly, she was unlawfully denied overtime and rest breaks.

Epstein says that she was classified as a non-exempt employee entitled to overtime pay and meal and rest periods between September 2005 and January 2019. Allegedly, she was paid in whole or in part on an hourly basis and received additional compensation in the form of “non-discretionary flat sum incentive wages.”

Though she was classified as a non-exempt employee, Epstein says that Walgreens did not pay her overtime wages for all overtime hours worked. Additionally, she claims that she did not receive all of the legally-required breaks guaranteed to exempt workers.

The Walgreens California work law class action lawsuit asserts that Walgreens Pharmacy Services Midwest LLC made a uniform policy of denying exempt workers overtime wages and appropriate breaks.

Epstein asserts that she and other employees were financially injured by their employer’s practice. Allegedly, the company knew or should have known that their actions were in violation of California law, and violated the law in the interest of their profits.

The Walgreens California work law class action lawsuit asserts that the company did not accurately calculate overtime wages. Allegedly, the employees received a flat sum based on incentive wages which should have been included in regular pay.

However, the incentive sum was allegedly wrongly calculated as part of the overtime pay, which led to the employees being paid less than they should have.

Epstein notes that California work law requires employers to pay exempt employees an overtime rate of 1.5 times the amount of their regular rate of pay for every hour worked over 40 hours in any given work week. The State of California’s Department of Industrial Relations notes this on its website. 

Allegedly, she and other employees did not receive this amount because of how the company calculated overtime. 

Additionally, Epstein argues that Walgreens Pharmacy Services required her to engage in work after her shift ended, which resulted in a second reporting for work in a single day. She notes that California law requires employers to pay reporting time pay in the instance of a second reporting for work in a single day.

However, Epstein says that she was not paid for reporting time for the time she spent performing work outside of her scheduled shift.

The Walgreens overtime and pay class action lawsuit goes on to assert that Walgreens Pharmacy Midwest failed to provide adequate rest breaks to employees, and failed to compensate employees for necessary work expenses, effectively outsourcing un-reimbursed company expenses to employees.

Recently, according to Recode by Vox, California has passed new laws that help employees get the benefits that they should. Employees can stand up to employers by filing wage and hour lawsuits, and now have more wage and hour legal protections. 

The Walgreens Pharmacy Services Wage and Hour Class Action Lawsuit is Case No. RIC 1903150, in the Superior Court of the State of California in and for the County of Riverside.

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