Judge Approves $10M Settlement in Forklift Driver’s Unpaid Wages Lawsuit

A federal judge has approved a $10 million settlement in the matter of a forklift driver’s unpaid wages lawsuit against Express Services Inc. and its franchisee.

The driver filed a class action lawsuit against Express Services and Phillips & Associates Inc., staffing services that hired him to work for a company called Western Wine in California, in 2012. The worker claimed Express and Phillips “systematically violated employment laws by not providing legally mandated off-duty meal periods, failing to pay overtime at the correct rate, issuing inaccurate and non-compliant wage statements, failing to pay meal period premiums and failing to provide all wages due upon separation of employment,” U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller’s ruling said. All of the above is in violation of California labor laws.

A Breakdown of the Unpaid Wages Lawsuit Settlement

A little more than $7 million of the settlement payout would go to pay back eligible Class Members based on the number of weeks they worked between Mar. 13, 2008 and Dec. 31, 2017. There are an estimated 162,993 Class Members, according to the settlement proposal for the wage and hour claim, and the individual payouts are expected to be anywhere from $140 to $1,411.

Judge Mueller approved a payment of not more than 25% of the gross settlement amount, or $2.5 million, to the plaintiffs’ lawyers and an additional $70,000 for the legal expenses incurred while working the case. The settlement administrators, who will communicate with the Class Members and distribute the funds, will get $365,000 and the lead plaintiff will get a $10,000 award for his work in bringing the case forward and participating in the litigation.

The settlement will also include a $50,000 penalty for violating California labor laws that will be paid to the state.

The Defendants

Express Services is an international staffing company that provides temporary workers, fulfills staffing, assists workers with job placement, and offers human resources services and consulting to the companies it contracts with. Phillips & Associates is an Express franchisee in California.

The lead plaintiff in the case was hired by Phillips to work as a forklift driver in a Western Wines warehouse.

Western Wines paid Phillips a fee for the forklift driver and Phillips was responsible for compensating the driver.

Under the terms of the settlement, Western Wines will be released from all liability in the matter and will not be required to contribute to the payout.

Second Chance Settlement

This month’s settlement is the second to be proposed to Judge Mueller in the unpaid wages lawsuit.

The first proposed settlement, for the same $10 million payout, was lacking in some key details when it was submitted to the court in March 2018, the judge said, which prompted her to reject it. She questioned the amount of the settlement and wanted more background information to substantiate the final calculation of damages to be paid to the Class Members.

“In the renewed motion for preliminary settlement, plaintiff provides far more extensive information regarding the extent of defendants’ liability,” the judge said in her approval.

Specifics to Back up Settlement Amount

Specifically, lawyers for the forklift driver offered evidence – including reporting from hand-written time sheets – to back up their claim that Express and Phillips had shorted the Class Members some $25.3 million in unprovided meal breaks.

The plaintiffs also said the companies’ records showed Express and Phillips owed the Class Members about $631,000 in unpaid overtime wages.

By law, employers are required to provide employees accurate itemized wage statements, which the plaintiffs in the unpaid wages lawsuit claim Express and Phillips failed to do. That failure, by law, calls for the employer to pay “the greater of actual damages, or $50 per employee per pay period for the initial violation and $100 per employee for subsequent violations,” not to exceed $4,000 per employee. That meant Express and Phillips could have been looking at a total of $15.2 million in damages over just the wage statements.

Finally, lawyers for the plaintiffs said Express and Phillips could have been assessed $51 million in waiting time penalties for the lag time between the employees working their shifts and actually getting paid.

Given those totals, and the information and evidence that went into calculating them, the judge said she was satisfied that the proposed $7 million payout to the Class Members was fair and reasonable.

“The court also finds that, on a preliminary basis, the settlement is fair, just,
adequate, and reasonable to all members of the Class when balanced against the probable outcome of further litigation,” Judge Mueller wrote.

The Unpaid Wages Lawsuit is Case No. 2:12-cv-01054-KJM-CKD in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.

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