United States: Expanded Statute Of Limitations For Liquidated Damages On Minimum Wage Claims

Recently, some courts in California had held that a lawsuit seeking liquidated damages for minimum wage violations were subject to a one-year statute of limitations. Assembly Bill 2074 was introduced in response to these decisions and clarifies that a lawsuit seeking such damages can be filed at any time before the expiration of the statute of limitations applicable to the underlying wage claim. This means that the statute of limitations can often be three […]

By | January 23rd, 2015 ||

United States: Employer Properly Challenged CUIAB’s Determination That Worker Was Not An Independent Contractor

West Hollywood Cmty. Health & Fitness Ctr. v. CUIAB, 2014 WL 6852700 (Cal. Ct. App. 2014)

After leaving his job as a massage therapist at West Hollywood Community Health & Fitness Center (d/b/a “Voda Spa”), Mario Serban applied for unemployment benefits. The Employment Development Department sent Voda Spa a letter indicating that Serban had been an employee (and not an independent contractor) and that he had good cause to leave work, thus rendering him eligible […]

By | January 22nd, 2015 ||

United States: Trial Court Properly Denied Class Certification For Unpaid Meal Break Claims

In re Walgreen Co. Overtime Cases, 231 Cal. App. 4th 437 (2014)

The putative class members in this case moved for class certification on the theory that although Walgreens’s stated policy on meal breaks was proper, its actual practice departed from its stated policy in an illegal and class wide way. The trial court denied class certification, and the Court of Appeal affirmed, holding that the evidence was too weak to support certification, including a […]

By | January 22nd, 2015 ||