US Bancorp Wage Statement Lawsuit Reaches $7M Settlement

A $7 million settlement of a US Bancorp wage statement lawsuit has been preliminarily approved, says a California federal judge.

Approximately 25,000 possible Class Members claim that US Bancorp committed meal break and wage statement violations over the course of several years. They claim such transgressions violate the California Labor Code and Private Attorneys General Act.

The US Bancorp wage statement lawsuit was filed in November 2013 by lead plaintiff Monica Wert, who alleged that U.S. Bank never provided proper statements indicating total hours worked during a pay period and the necessary deductions of each pay period.

In 2014, she added allegations that non-exempt workers such as herself were required to work without meal breaks during shifts lasting longer than five hours.

In California, employees earn a 30-minute unpaid meal break after five hours of work unless the workday will be finished in six or less hours. Employees also are entitled to a paid rest period of ten minutes for each four-hour shift worked.

US Bancorp is the parent company of U.S. Bank.

Different subclasses are included in the settlement proposal, including those affected by alleged:

• Paystub violations from Nov. 13, 2012 to July 2014
• Meal break payment violations from November 2012 to December 2016;
• Violations of meal break pay from November 2009 through December 2016.

Judge Expresses Support for US Bancorp Wage Statement Lawsuit Settlement

“The risk of future motions for summary judgment, for class certification and eventual appeals weighs in favor of settlement at this stage of the proceedings,” said U.S. District Judge Cynthia Bashant in her written order.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs are asking for 30 percent of the settlement in addition to costs no greater than $25,000. The Labor and Workforce Development Agency will collect payment as well. According to court documents, the net settlement will consist of approximately $4.2 million.

U.S. Bank’s defense was that it had supplied the wage and hour documentation in an online format and that no actual injuries resulted to any of the parties as a result of any alleged neglects of wage reporting. Still, the bank is making modifications to its payroll system.

The questions of whether or not U.S. Bank’s wage statements were incomplete and/or incorrect and whether or not proper meal breaks were allowed to employees were common themes in the complaint, said the judge in the preliminary approval statement.

Judge Bashant said the final approval hearing for the US Bancorp wage statement lawsuit settlement will be held Sept. 25.

The US Bancorp Wage Statement Lawsuit is Monica R. Wert v. U.S. Bancorp et al., Case No. 3:13-cv-03130 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

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