Anthem Companies Customer Care Reps Owed Unpaid Wages, Lawsuit Claims

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

The Anthem Companies, Inc. has failed to pay customer care representatives proper wages, provide uninterrupted breaks, and issue accurate, itemized wage statements, according to a proposed class action out of California.

The plaintiff, who worked for Anthem as a customer care rep between January 2017 and June 2020 in San Diego, alleges the health insurance company has violated California’s Labor Code and Business and Professions Code.

Per the complaint, Anthem failed to pay workers for every hour they remained under the company’s control, which caused the employees’ pay to fall below California’s minimum rate. Moreover, employees were not provided with a 30-minute meal period for every five hours worked or a 10-minute rest period for every four hours on the job, the lawsuit alleges.

The plaintiff claims she and other workers are owed one hour of pay at their regular rate for each day in which a compliant break was not provided, in accordance with California law.

The case goes on to allege that Anthem failed to provide workers with accurate, itemized wage statements that included their gross wages earned, total hours worked, all deductions, net wages earned, all applicable hourly rates in effect during the pay period and the corresponding number of hours worked at each rate. According to the suit, Anthem’s “knowing and intentional failure” to maintain accurate payment records caused employees “[c]onfusion” over whether they received all of the wages they were owed and hampered their ability to challenge the information in their wage statements.

The plaintiff further alleges she and other workers were not provided with “their entire wages due and owing” at the time of their termination or within 72 hours of resignation, and did not receive the money for 30 days thereafter.

The lawsuit, originally filed in June 2020 in San Diego County Superior Court, was removed to California’s Southern District Court on October 21.

Get class action lawsuit news sent to your inbox – sign up for ClassAction.org’s newsletter here.