Lawsuit Alleges Setton Pistachio Broke California Overtime Rules

America’s second largest pistachio producer has agreed to settle a lawsuit accusing the company of violating California overtime rules.

Terra Bella-based Setton Pistachio is offering its workers about 50 cents for each shift worked between April 27, 2012, and March 1, 2019.

If a Tulare County Superior Court judge certifies the case as a class action, some 2,000 current and former employees would qualify for the settlement, according to the Visalia Times Delta newspaper.

Plaintiff Lilia A. is a former Setton employee who claims the company cheated workers out of overtime in addition to some regular shift work.

A news release issued by Setton addressing the proposed settlement offer says:  “The company has been accused of failing to pay somewhere between 1 to 3 minutes of pay per workday as employees walked between the front gate and time-clocks, and while Setton denies these accusations and believes that we paid our employees fairly, we are offering direct cash settlements to ensure that we have no disputes with our esteemed employees.”

Allegations of Breaking California Overtime Rules

Setton employees are required to punch a time clock, and if someone punched in at 7:55 a.m. to start an 8 a.m. shift, Setton is accused of rounding the start time to 8 a.m. In addition, Setton allegedly rounded an employee’s start time and end time to the quarter hour.

Even though rounding start times is legal if both the company and the employees benefit equally, Setton is accused of benefitting more than the employees, something with which the company’s general manager, Lee Cohen, takes issue.

Cohen said Setton relies on a widely used software system to record when employees punch in and out, and that the company has the data to show the fairness of its time system.

Still, Setton is accused of rounding an eight-hour, 10-minute day to just eight hours, which, if true, would deprive an employee of 10 minutes of overtime. If the employee worked 10 minutes extra for five days, that equates to 50 minutes of lost overtime.

According to California overtime rules, if an employee works more than eight hours, up to and including 12 hours in one workday, the employee earns one and one-half times the regular rate of pay for the time worked beyond eight, and up to 12 hours. Anything more than 12 hours in a single workday should be paid at double the employee’s regular rate of pay.

The Setton Pistachio website states that the company owns more than 10,000 acres of pistachios, and processes more than 110 million pounds of the nuts each year. Setton sells pistachios in more than 50 markets worldwide.

Even though Setton denies any wrongdoing, its offering the settlement “to ensure that we have no disputes with our esteemed employees,” a company spokeswoman said in a prepared statement. The pistachio giant has installed new time clocks loctaed at its facility’s front gate that work by scanning each employee’s palm print, eliminating the need for a time sheet, according to Cohen.

Join a Free California Wage & Hour Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you were forced to work off the clock or without overtime pay within the past 3 years in California, you have rights – and you don’t have to take on the company alone.

Get a Free Case Evaluation Now