CLASS ACTIONS:
WAGE & HOUR
Many employees are deprived of proper wages by their employers. Workers may be denied proper overtime pay or may be misclassified as exempt from overtime requirements. Workers also may be denied legally required rest or meal breaks. In many instances, an individual wage claim is small, and the employee often has difficulty finding an attorney to handle the case and help end the unlawful practices.
At Schroeter Goldmark & Bender, we find that the most effective means to putting an end to unlawful wage practices is the class action. With a class action, we can bring similar, small claims to trial in one case and thereby vindicate the rights of a large number of employees at one time. We also have the resources and experience to take on the country’s largest employers, including Fortune 500 companies like Wal-Mart, Sears, and Tyson Foods.
Specific areas of our wage and hour expertise include:
- Off-the-clock work (for example, pre-shift and post-shift work, on-call time, travel time, and mandated meetings)
- Misclassification of employees as exempt from overtime (for example, professional, administrative, outside salesperson or independent contractor status)
- Unpaid or denied rest breaks
- Unpaid or denied lunch breaks
- Failure to pay prevailing wage on public projects
The law limits recovery of unpaid wages to two or three years depending on the situation, so the sooner a worker acts, the more recovery can be obtained. If you believe you have been denied proper wages, be sure to document the situation as carefully as possible.
Let us help you
There is no charge for us to evaluate your potential claim. If we take the case, we do so on a contingency basis and we advance all the costs of the litigation. The workers are not responsible for fees or costs, and we only recover our fees and costs if we are successful in obtaining relief for the class through judgement or settlement. Contact us for a free, confidential case review or call us at 1-800-809-2234.
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
These days, many law firms claim to represent employees in wage and hour class actions. What sets SGB apart is our long experience in litigating these cases. Many firms sign up clients with potential class claims without ever having handled a class action case or having much experience working with the class action rules. This can be fatal to obtaining relief for the employees. Even many experienced class action firms may never have actually taken a case to trial, instead opting to settle all of their cases.
At SGB, we have tried numerous wage and hour class actions and pursued successful appeals up to the Washington and United States Supreme Courts. We are the firm other lawyers turn to for help and advice when it comes time to try a wage and hour class action. We know what it takes to get court approval for a case to proceed as a class action, we know how to manage class actions, we know how to structure settlements to obtain the maximum benefits for employees, and we know, if necessary, how to try these cases to obtain the best result for our clients. Learn about what you can do to protect your interests when considering a wage and hour legal action. Some people believe that class actions are only a way for the lawyers to make money, while they provide no real relief for injured workers. But at SGB, we believe that the power of the class action can and should be used to obtain just compensation for employees and to put an end to unfair labor practices. We never put our own interests ahead of those of our clients and the class and we will only agree to settlements that provide real benefits to the employees.
- $30 million settlement in "equal pay" class action on behalf of Washington State government employees.
- Combined judgment and settlements of $18.3 million for donning and doffing, walk time, and other minimum wage and overtime violations for workers at meatpacking giant IBP/Tyson's plant in Pasco, Washington, affirmed by the United States Supreme Court in 2005.
- $751,000 verdict on behalf of Brink’s Home Security technicians for unpaid travel time and other off the clock work, affirmed by the Washington Supreme Court in a precedent-setting 2007 decision establishing the compensability of drive time in company vehicles for home dispatch employees under Washington law.
- $950,00 settlement for Anacortes refinery workers for donning and doffing and walk time violations.
- $750,000 settlement for driver salesmen for Farmer Bros. Coffee who were misclassified as exempt from overtime pay under Washington law.
- $225,000 settlement for City of Puyallup firefighters in case involving application of alternative work period to calculate overtime pay under federal law.
- Recovered millions of dollars in back wages for thousands of Taco Bell employees in Washington (1997) and Oregon (2003).
|
|
