Zara Accused of Violating California Overtime Laws

A class action lawsuit was filed against the popular retail company Zara, alleging that they failed to pay their employees according to California overtime laws, including proper overtime wages and missed meal breaks and rest periods.

A former Zara employee brought a lawsuit against the retail company on behalf of herself and all others in a similar position, alleging that the company failed to properly calculate and pay overtime compensation for their hourly employees, violating California overtime laws. Moreover, Zara also allegedly failed to give their employees the required meal and rest breaks.

According to the lawsuit, the company paid non-exempt employees based on their performance for the company, known as a non-discretionary incentive wage. According to the complaint, the company failed to include this incentive wage compensation for non-exempt employees as part of their “regular rate of pay” when calculating the overtime compensation they were owed, even though this was part of the regular pay system. Because of this, the lawsuit claims, these non-exempt employees were underpaid overtime in violation of California overtime laws.

Because of their intensive work schedules, these non-exempt employees were also not allowed to take off-duty meal breaks, the lawsuit claims. However, California overtime laws require that an employer must provide employees who work a shift of more than five hours a day with a thirty-minute meal break before their fifth hour of work. According to the lawsuit, Zara also failed to provide employees who did not take their meal breaks with the additional compensation required by California overtime laws.

The lawsuit was filed on May 14, 2018, over multiple violations of California overtime laws, including unfair competition, failure to pay overtime wages, failure to provide required meal breaks and rest periods, and failure to provide accurate itemized statements, among others. The Zara lawsuit is now pending in the Orange County Superior Court for the State of California.

California Overtime Laws

There are a series of both federal and state wage and hour laws put in place to protect workers and ensure they are treated fairly. However, many workers across the country do not know the protections that the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) offers, which can lead to employers taking advantage of them, in some cases requiring unpaid overtime work despite the illegality of doing so.

Some workers may find themselves unable to file wage and hour complaints like this unpaid overtime lawsuit because they are not aware of FLSA rules. Others may be afraid that their employers will retaliate or even fire them if they speak up about these kinds of FLSA violations. To protect workers who help to enforce FLSA rules, laws also exist to protect workers from discrimination based on wage and hour complaints.

Filing an Unpaid Overtime Lawsuit

If you have worked for an employer like Zara that may have failed to follow the Fair Labor Standards Act or California overtime laws, you may be able to either join a wage and hour class action lawsuit or file an unpaid overtime lawsuit of your own.

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.

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