Class Action Alleges California Safelite Employees Denied Proper Wages, Breaks

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Auto glass company Safelite has failed to pay workers proper wages and provide appropriate meal and rest breaks in accordance with California labor law, a proposed class action alleges.

According to the case, defendants Safelite Group, Inc.; Safelite Fulfillment, Inc.; and Safelite Glass Corporation have failed to comply with California labor laws by denying workers proper minimum wages for every hour worked; overtime pay when they worked more than eight hours per day or 40 hours per week; 30-minute meal periods and 10-minute rest periods; an additional hour of pay for each missed break; reimbursement for business expenses; and accurate wage statements.

The lawsuit alleges Safelight, who provides car windshield repair and replacement services, “knew or should have known” of its duty to pay workers in accordance with the law and was financially able to properly compensate them yet “willfully, knowingly, and intentionally failed to do so” while representing to the workers that they had been properly paid.

According to the case, although Safelight was obligated under state law to pay workers time-and-a-half overtime wages for hours worked in excess of eight in a day or 40 in a week, the employees often worked overtime hours without being paid the requisite wages. Moreover, workers did not receive an uninterrupted 30-minute meal period for every five hours worked or a 10-minute rest period for every four hours worked as required by California law, or an hour’s wages at their regular rate for each missed break, the lawsuit alleges.

The suit goes on to claim that workers were not provided with “complete and accurate” wage statements given their paystubs did not contain certain required information, including their total number of hours worked during the relevant pay period.

Further, employees were not reimbursed for business-related expenses incurred during the discharge of their duties or obedience to their employer’s directions, the lawsuit claims.

The case, which was recently removed from Los Angeles County Superior Court to California’s Central District Court, looks to represent current and former hourly paid, non-exempt employees who resided in and worked for Safelite in California at any time within the past four years and until final judgment in the case. The suit also proposes several subclasses for those who are alleged to have been required to stay on Safelite’s premises during rest breaks; received overtime at a lower rate than they were entitled to because their bonuses or incentive-based compensation was not included as part of the defendants’ overtime rate calculations; or whose bonuses or incentive-based compensation was not used to calculate their meal or rest break premium payments.

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