California Overtime Lawsuit Settlement in the Home Stretch

Los Angeles, CAIn what should be a bit of Christmas cheer for plaintiffs, a federal judge in California has signed off on a settlement that will end an overtime pay laws and off-the-clock work dispute between a class of disgruntled employees and their employer, Burlington Coat Factory.

The settlement still faces final approval. Nonetheless, the granting of preliminary approval by US District Judge Dean D. Pregerson earlier this month allows a class tens of thousands strong to finally put all this behind them.

The unpaid overtime and off-the-clock work settlement, which ends a dispute involving allegations of missed rest breaks and time spent languishing in bag checks, is valued at $1.8 million.

The named plaintiff in the California lawsuit is Amida Rodriguez, who alleged in her initial lawsuit filed in 2012 that Burlington Coat Factory’s policy governing rest breaks and bag checks were stiffing hourly workers of wages due. Two years later, in 2014, Rodriquez upped the ante with a motion aimed at certifying a class of employees toiling at Burlington’s 60 retail locations in the state of California.

To back up allegations in her California overtime law class action, Rodriguez referenced a “uniform policy” as it related to both rest breaks and bag checks, including the company’s own written handbooks issued to managers that referenced the undertaking of bag checks only after employees had clocked out, or so it was alleged.

Burlington referenced the US Supreme Court decision from last December in a similar case against Amazon, in which the court ruled that Amazon did not have to pay employees for time spent going through security checks. There was also a suggestion from Burlington that bag checks for employees in California were conducted differently than for employees in other states and thus any claim against Burlington’s uniform policy with regard to screenings and bag checks was not appropriate when referencing employees in California.

As it turned out, there was no ruling on class certification as the parties settled before the ruling could be brought.

The settlement, according to court documents, could benefit some 22,000 current and former employees of Burlington Coat Factory in the state of California. The hearing to undertake arguments for or against final approval is set for February 29.

The case is Armida Rodriguez v. Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corp. et al., case number 2:13-cv-02426, in the US District Court for the Central District of California.