In a recent overtime pay class action settlement, a certified class of Ecolab Inc. workers asked a federal judge in California to issue approval for a $35 million settlement that would resolve allegations that the sanitation company shorted them overtime pay.

The class workers were responsible for servicing dishwashers as well as promoting Ecolab up’s cleaning products and said the settlement represented “a reasonable compromise” as the culmination of seven years of “fiercely fought litigation” and to prior mediation attempts that had failed.

In the overtime pay class action settlement, Ecolab agreed to compensate a total of 223 class members for the wages they were allegedly owed, plus interest on those wages and taxes, which equaled an average of $108,000 per class member.

Approximately another third of the $35 million settlement will be used to pay the attorneys’ fees.

“The settlement represents a compromise between the positions and evaluations of the two sides to this controversy,” the request for final approval of the overtime pay class action settlement states. “Clearly, there were significant disagreements between the parties as to the facts, the law and application of both to the defendant’s business model.”

The overtime pay class action settlement represents the culmination of a class action lawsuit that was originally filed by plaintiff James Icard, a former Ecolab employee, back in 2009 in San Francisco Superior Court.

Icard accused his former employer of misclassifying its route sales managers as employees exempt from overtime pay.

These route managers were responsible for repairing and installing dishwashers as well as selling sanitizers. Icard also accused Ecolab of failing to pay employees for the hours they spent working overtime and failed to provide meal breaks.

A state court judge initially issued preliminary certification to a class of route sales managers back in 2012 before the class action lawsuit was removed to federal court in 2013.

Last year, Ecolab made a motion to decertify the class, however U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton denied Ecolab’s motion.

Ecolab has continued to deny the allegations throughout the process, and was unsuccessful in several motions for summary judgment. Judge Hamilton also refused additional motions for summary judgment where Ecolab asked to toss the case.

The company was unsuccessful in arguing that the employees in question were qualified as service workers exempt from overtime pay and was also unsuccessful in arguing that its meal break policy complied with California law.

In December, Judge Hamilton allowed the two parties an attempt to settle the overtime pay class action lawsuit through mediation processes.

The current proposed overtime pay class action settlement agreement is not the first that Ecolab has reached over the last few years. Ecolab entered into an overtime pay class action settlement with two separate classes in California federal court, alleging it denied overtime pay to hundreds of workers hired as exterminators.

The settlements were in the amount of $7.5 million and $29 million.

The Ecolab Overtime Pay Class Action Lawsuit is Icard v. Ecolab, Case No. 4:13-cv-05097, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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