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On Nov. 9, 2017, a conditional class certification was granted to Costco wage and hour lawsuit. In addition to naming Costco Wholesale Corp. as defendant, the complainant is identifying CACafe Inc. and Club Demonstration Services as the defendants in this wage and hour class action lawsuit.
Plaintiff Leona M. originally filed her case a little over a year ago in October 2016. Leona is a former in-store demonstrator (ISD) who alleges violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and state wage law for the state of California.
In this Costco wage and hour lawsuit, Leona M. claims that she and other in-store demonstrators were misclassified as independent contractors. As independent contractors, they were not paid appropriate wages for overtime hours, given meal or rest breaks, or even paid minimum wage.
She alleges they were held to a certain schedule, required to buy the product they sold (coconut-infused coffee and tea products), and paid based on how much they did manage to sell in a day.
The Costco wage and hour lawsuit also alleges that the warehouse food giant maintained total supervisory control over in-house beverage demonstrators along with the other defendants. This supervisory control was evident in the fact that ISD’s had to set up their demo booth according to a checklist, take pictures and send those to CACafe for approval. They also had to submit to detailed inspections by CACafe Managers or Costco managers on site.
Leona, lead plaintiff in this Costco wage and hour lawsuit, estimates that CACafe hired about 113 ISDs to promote its coconut-infused beverages at Costco warehouses during a three-year time window between the end of 2013 and 2016. This promotion primarily occurred in California but also in other states.
Leona seeks to represent these ISDs as class representative in this class action Costco wage and hour lawsuit. On Nov. 9, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Rogers granted conditional class certification.
The judge ruled that the plaintiff presented her case showing the minimum basis for belief in violation of FLSA and California State wage law rights. This ruling by Judge Rogers allows Class Members consisting of all CACafe ISDs over the last three years to be notified and to join the action if desired.
In addition to federal labor standards, California overtime law requires employers to pay hourly overtime at a rate of one and one-half times the employee’s regular rate of pay for every hour past eight hours in a single day, and a 10 minute break for every four hours worked.
The Costco wage and hour lawsuit seeks on behalf of its class membership a trial by jury in all matters presented. It seeks an award that includes compensation for all unpaid meal and rest breaks, overtime pay, and minimum wages. It also seeks liquidated damages, penalties, and reimbursement of all business expenses.
The Costco Wage and Hour Lawsuit is Case No. 4:16-cv-06291 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
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