$12M Safeway Cashier Seating Class Action Settlement Gets OK

A $12 million settlement was recently approved, ending class action claims that Safeway failed to provide cashier seating in violation of California’s Private Attorneys General Act.

Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Thomas E. Kuhnle approved the deal which will send most of the funds towards satisfying penalties under the PAGA, but nearly $2 million will benefit more than 30,000 cashiers who worked for the grocery store.

The California Labor and Workforce Development Agency will receive $5.6 million of the settlement under the PAGA. Although this multi-million dollar penalty is hefty, it reportedly constitutes around five percent of the $244.7 million in penalties the grocer could have been forced to pay if the court decided on a $100 penalty per pay period for each violation.

These lower penalties are reportedly warranted due to the challenges faced during the Safeway class action litigation, including a California Supreme Court decision in Kilby v. CVS Pharmacy Inc. This decision reportedly determined that employees must be given seats if their work can be done sitting down, even if the sitting work isn’t done for their entire workday.

Settlement Class Members in the Safeway class action settlement reportedly number 30,182. These cashiers who were denied seating in California will reportedly receive a pro rata portion of $1.875 million. In addition to monetary compensation, these cashiers will also be provided seating for two years under the settlement terms.

The rest of the Safeway class action settlement will cover various costs and fees. Counsel for plaintiff Eva Sharp will reportedly receive 35 percent of the settlement fund as attorneys’ fees. This $4.2 million will be accompanied by $185,443 in court costs.

Judge Kuhnle also approved a $14,000 incentive award to Sharp. She had originally requested a larger service award of $20,000 which she justified with eight years of litigation and nearly 100 hours that she reportedly spent working on the case during discovery, depositions, and consultations.

Even with a decreased service award, Judge Kuhnle noted that the incentive payment and attorneys’ fees in the settlement are larger than what is typically seen in class action litigation. These awards were reportedly justified by the amount of time spend on the litigation over the years and the amount recovered overall by the Safeway class action settlement.

Although Judge Kuhnle approved the settlement, he did amend his previous Class certification order from July 2018. The retroactive denial of Class certification was reportedly due to the fact that there is no Class to certify in the litigation since the Safeway class action settlement only resolved one PAGA claim. Based on this, a Class certification would reportedly be inappropriate.

Did you work for Safeway in California as a cashier but were not given a seat as required by state law? Share your experiences in the comment section below!

Sharp and the proposed Class are represented by Michael C. Righetti and Matthew Righetti of Righetti Glugoski PC.

The Safeway Cashier Seating Class Action Lawsuit is Sharp v. Safeway Inc., Case No. 2011-1-cv-202901, in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Santa Clara.

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