Yelp unpaid wages class action overview:
- Who: Plaintiff Leonardo Cuervo filed a class action lawsuit against Yelp Inc.
- Why: Cuervo claims Yelp failed to pay employees for time spent waiting for work computers to start and for other off-the-clock work.
- Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in California state court.
A former Yelp employee filed a class action lawsuit alleging the company failed to pay hourly workers for time spent waiting for their computers to boot up before they could begin their shifts.
Plaintiff Leonardo Cuervo claims employees were required to clock in through their work computers but were not compensated for the two to five minutes it took for the systems to load. The lawsuit alleges workers also lost additional unpaid time when login errors or system crashes required them to restart the process.
According to the complaint, by the time employees were able to fully log in and begin work, several minutes had already passed that were not recorded as compensable work time.
“By the time plaintiff and the putative class logged into [the system], up to five minutes or more may have already passed — this time was not properly recorded as time worked,” the Yelp class action lawsuit says.
The lawsuit seeks to represent a class of current and former nonexempt Yelp employees in California who were allegedly not paid for all hours worked.
Yelp allegedly violated wage, break and reimbursement laws
In addition to unpaid wages, Cuervo alleges Yelp violated California labor laws by failing to provide required meal and rest breaks.
The complaint claims employees were often unable to take uninterrupted 30-minute meal breaks or 10-minute rest breaks due to understaffing and heavy workloads that made it difficult to step away from their duties.
Cuervo also alleges Yelp failed to properly calculate overtime wages by excluding nondiscretionary bonuses and shift differentials from employees’ regular rate of pay.
The class action lawsuit further claims workers were required to use their personal cell phones for work-related tasks without reimbursement, in violation of California labor law.
In addition, the complaint alleges Yelp failed to provide accurate wage statements reflecting all hours worked and did not timely pay final wages to departing employees.
Cuervo is seeking unpaid wages, premium pay for missed breaks, reimbursement for business expenses, penalties, interest and attorneys’ fees.
Yelp said it is reviewing the complaint and stated it is committed to complying with applicable employment laws.
Meanwhile, Amazon recently agreed to pay $2 million to resolve claims it failed to provide required meal and rest breaks to hourly employees in Washington.
What do you think about these unpaid wage claims against Yelp? Let us know in the comments.
Cuervo is represented by Shaun Setareh, Thomas Segal and Farrah Grant of Setareh Law Group.
The Yelp class action lawsuit is Cuervo v. Yelp Inc., Case No. 26STCV12826, in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles.
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