Suit Alleging Violations of California Meal Break Law Reaches $1.35M Settlement

In a recent California meal break law lawsuit, a Superior Court judge in San Francisco is awarding $1.35 million to a Class of hourly workers employed by a beer distributor.

The Class of plaintiffs in this California meal break law lawsuit includes delivery drivers, ballpark vendors and warehouse workers who are or were employed by bay area beer distributor, Matagrano Inc. The workers claim that they were not paid for the proper amount of hours worked and that they were not given their mandated meal breaks.

This California meal break law lawsuit alleges that workers were continuously on duty and were not allowed to take breaks. Also, this lawsuit claims that Matagrano did not compensate their employees for time they worked off-the-clock.

One example of this is the fact that the workers claimed they drove home in company vehicles but they did not receive pay for that commute time.

According to the plaintiffs in this California meal break law lawsuit, the damages could be upwards of $7.4 million because Matagrano allegedly did not pay them proper overtime, did not provide timely wage payments and violated California meal and rest break laws regarding recordkeeping and unfair competition.

The judge said he would approve the hefty settlement this California meal break law lawsuit which would offer employees a payout based on what they had earned between February 2012 and April 2017.

In addition to the employee payout, the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency will receive $56,250 of the larger settlement. This payment is what is called a cy pres distribution of funds. The California Labor and Workforce Development Agency is a cy pres recipient.

The term “cy pres” refers to the distribution of extra funds after the class members have all been given their proper settlements. Cy pres funds often go back to the Class Members, can go to the government, and at times, go to an organization that directly affects the class members.

Judge Curtis Karnow voiced some concerns, according to Law360, including the large cy pres distribution, an increased allotment of the settlement funds to the class representatives as well as what he deemed as high attorneys’ fees.

The lead plaintiffs in this California meal break law lawsuit, Martin Gonzalez and Juan Perez, were slated to receive incentive awards of $12,000 and $5,000 respectively in addition to the payout they would receive from the settlement. Judge Karnow said that this presented “serious problems” and that these awards were so high that conflicts could develop between class members.

The judge said, “Incentive awards are a fairly recent invention in the law. People usually don’t get involved in a class action because they’re in it for the money. I’m acutely aware of the fact that every cent that goes to class representatives is taken away from the class.”

The California Meal Break Law Lawsuit is Martin Gonzalez v. Matagrano Inc. et al., Case No. CGC-16-550494, in the California Superior Court for the City and County of San Francisco.

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