$780K Awarded to Rest Break Class Action Lawsuit Members

A federal jury has recently awarded a Class of student truck drivers over three quarters of a million dollars in a rest break class action lawsuit.

One of the issues at hand in this rest break class action lawsuit is the allegation that Nebraska-based Werner Enterprises violated minimum wage laws by not paying over 50,000 student truck drivers for rest breaks taken.

These breaks were 20 minutes or less and the plaintiffs claim that because their employer did not include the rest breaks in time worked, this was violating minimum wage laws.

Another issue at hand is time spent in sleeper berths. Drivers allege that even though they were logging time in the sleeper berth, they were still “working” because they were on call or performing duties they needed to do for work.

According to the rest break class action lawsuit, drivers log their time in one of four categories: off duty, sleeper berth, driving and not driving but on duty. Werner pays their drivers for time logged in the last two categories.

The $780,000 award deals with the question of rest break violation. The second issue, regarding time spent in sleeper berths, was not met with such an award.

The United States Department of Transportation regulates time a truck driver may spend working. They state that a driver cannot be on duty for more than 14 hours per day. According to the Department of Transportation, a driver may only log time in his or her sleeper berth when the employee is completely off duty and has no work responsibilities.

The plaintiffs believe that they were affected by a company culture and history of practice that did not allow them to properly take sleeping breaks as they should under the Department of Transportation guidelines.

The named plaintiffs in this rest break class action lawsuit say that because Werner’s computerized time keeping system did not properly compensate them for rest breaks of less than 20 minutes or time spent in the sleeper berth working, that time should be counted toward hours worked.

The jury instructions stated that “Such time constitutes as ‘hours worked’ if the employer knew or should have known that the employee was working.”

The jury instructions in this rest break class action lawsuit also stated that “Under certain conditions, an employee is considered to be working even though some of the employee’s time is spent sleeping, resting or waiting.” They went on to say, “Plaintiffs may overcome the presumption that hours logged in the sleeper berth are not hours worked by showing that Werner required all class members to work continually, even when logging time in the sleeper berth.”

This Rest Break Class Action Lawsuit is Petrone, et al. v. Werner Enterprises Inc., et al., Case No. 8:12­-cv­-00307, before the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska.

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