Smart & Final Class Action Lawsuit Alleges Violations of California Labor Laws

Smart & Final, Inc. is facing a class action lawsuit alleging that the company violated mandated labor laws that include meal and rest breaks for a former manager at the warehouse grocery chain.

Plaintiff Jessy Dubon alleges that she frequently had to work shifts where she couldn’t take such mandated rest breaks because of issues such as “customer traffic and volume” or shortages of staff.

The Smart & Final class action lawsuit states that “she worked for Smart & Final as a key carrier and closing shift manager from 2007 through February 2015, earning approximately $15 an hour.”

It further claims that, “when she worked night shifts from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., she was typically the only manager working and couldn’t routinely take mandated meal or rest breaks,” the wage and hour lawsuit explains.

Further, if employees were not able to get a meal or rest break, they were not being paid for missing that break, which is how it’s supposed to work, according to California labor law.

The Smart & Final class action lawsuit states that “the company should’ve known that if workers weren’t given duty-free meal periods within the first five hours of any shift of six hours or more, or 10-minute rest breaks for each shift of five hours or more, they were entitled to one hour of wages.”

The meal and rest break lawsuit does not dismiss other “allegations of minimum wage violations.” The Smart & Final class action lawsuit claims that numerous employees continued to work while clocked out. They allege that they would have been “reprimanded” if a task had not been completed within their shift or appointed time.

Dubon states that she would be forced to clock out at closing, but that “she would sometimes still have to work past that time.”

Additionally, other allegations include failure of the company to compensate all terminated employees and to submit correct and factual wage statements.

The Smart & Final class action lawsuit aims to represent a class of employees who worked from March 30, 2013 through the present. It further includes any employee who had not worked since that time.

Dubon does not mention the number of members involved in the Smart & Final class action lawsuit but believes that that amount will be brought forth during “discovery”.

“She seeks to recover for the class restitution for what the workers are owed, as well as penalties permitted by California labor law,” the California wage and hour lawsuit explains.

Smart & Final is headquartered in Los Angeles and includes stores or its chains in California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, and Washington. It has more than 300 store locations.

The Smart & Final class action lawsuit also discusses a prior class action lawsuit filed against the retailer in the fall of 2014. Back then, it states that the “company agreed to pay $3 million to settle a class action alleging it shorted the wages of more than 16,000 workers in California.”

Further, it addresses that, “the suit alleged the chain forced employees to work off-the-clock, failed to pay employees at least minimum wages for all hours worked and failed to reimburse them for business expenses.”

The company then settled the lawsuit to dodge costly and lengthy litigation.

Dubon is represented by Marcus J. Bradley, Kiley L. Grombacher and Taylor L. Emerson of the Bradley Grombacher LLP.

The Smart & Final Class Action Lawsuit is Dubon v. Smart & Final Stores, Inc., Case BC655983, in the Superior Court for the State of California for the County of Los Angeles.

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