Off the Clock Work Violated Labor Laws, Claims Equinox Employee

An Equinox employee claims that the gym violated California wage and hour labor laws by not paying her overtime and requiring off the clock work.

Plaintiff Deborah A. claims that she worked for Equinox Holdings Inc, the company that owns Equinox gyms, at two of their California fitness center locations from January 2013 to February 2017. During this time, she claims that the company refused to pay her overtime and refused to pay for breaks as required by law.

Deborah claims that for the entirety of her employment with Equinox, she was an hourly employee, classified as “non-exempt” from receiving overtime pay. However, Deborah claims that she was not given compensation for off the clock work or overtime, though she regularly worked over 40 hours in a week.

Allegedly, Deborah was also not given meal and rest breaks as required by California labor law. Moreover, she claims that she was not given pay for each day that she was not permitted to take a break, which she claims was a common occurrence during her employment at Equinox.

In her Equinox off the clock work lawsuit, she seeks to recuperate missed wages, interest and damages, penalties from Equinox’s alleged violation of California law, injunctive and equitable relieve, and attorneys fees and costs.

California Labor Laws

Deborah claims that Equinox’s alleged practice of denying overtime compensation and paid breaks was a willful violation of California law, and was a systematic practice within the company, as opposed to the result of random negligence. 

She claims that the company willfully failed to provide her with “accurate semi-monthly itemized wage statements reflecting the total number of hours each worked, the applicable deductions, and the applicable hourly rates in effect during the pay period,” as she claims is required by the California Labor Code and Industrial Wage Orders.

Deborah says that the company specifically instructed her to not clock in for more than eight hours per day, but required her to perform more than eight hours of work per day. She states that she “would be instructed to clock out of the time tracking system and then return to her station and continue to work for [Equinox] without any compensation.”

She adds that she was also required to work without compensation when she was required to travel to off-sight locations on her days off, and was specifically instructed to not clock in for this time.

Deborah’s Equinox Overtime Compensation class action lawsuit also claims that the company routinely did not pay her all due wages, even regular hours as opposed to overtime hours, in a timely manner. Furthering her argument that the company made every effort to pay her as little as possible, and to delay payment if it was advantageous, Deborah alleges that Equinox required her to enter sales into the company records for the following month, so she would not be paid additional commission compensation in a given month.

Deborah claims that Equinox intentionally exploited her labor for the purposes of its profits, willfully violating the California Labor Code and Industrial Wage Orders.

The Equinox Off The Clock Work Lawsuit is Case No. 2:18-cv-03759-SVW-RAO in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

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.

Get a Free Case Evaluation Now