Lawsuit Alleges Goodyear Underpaid California Workers for Missed Breaks

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The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company faces a proposed class action in California wherein a former employee claims he and other workers were not provided with proper meal and rest breaks or compensation in lieu thereof.

The 25-page case says that when Goodyear compensated workers for missed meal and rest breaks as required by California law, it did so at the employees’ base hourly pay rates instead of their regular rates of pay, which should have included nondiscretionary bonuses.

The suit alleges that workers are owed unpaid meal and rest break premiums due to Goodyear’s “consistent policy” of failing to pay them at the required rate for this work time. As a result, the company also failed to satisfy several other California labor law requirements, including providing workers with accurate wage statements and paying them all wages due at the end of their employment, the case alleges.

The plaintiff is a former employee who worked as a service advisor at two Goodyear service centers in San Jose, California, the filing relays. Per the case, the plaintiff was paid an hourly rate of $16 to $19 plus a nondiscretionary bonus known as SPIFF.

As the lawsuit tells it, when employees were denied opportunities to take a 30-minute, uninterrupted meal break as required by California law, Goodyear paid them a meal break premium at their base hourly rate. The suit argues, however, that meal break premiums are to be paid at an employee’s regular rate of pay, which is supposed to include all forms of compensation. Per the case, Goodyear’s failure to include the plaintiff’s SPIFF bonus as part of his regular pay rate resulted in the man being underpaid for missed meal breaks.

Similarly, the lawsuit alleges that a staff shortage prevented Goodyear from providing employees with 10-minute rest periods for every four hours worked or major fraction thereof. According to the complaint, the defendant again left out employees’ bonuses and other types of remuneration from their hourly rate when calculating rest break premiums.

Tangential to Goodyear’s allegedly unlawful pay practices is the company’s failure to provide accurate wage statements in accordance with California law, the suit alleges. Per the complaint, the wage statements provided to workers failed to accurately show the employees’ gross and net wages earned given their meal and rest break premiums were not paid properly. Moreover, the statements did not appropriately state all applicable hourly rates in effect during each pay period, according to the case.

The suit lastly alleges that Goodyear failed to pay workers all wages owed at the time of their separation from employment.

The lawsuit, which was initially filed in Santa Clara County, California Superior Court before being removed to the state’s Northern District Court on March 2, looks to cover anyone who works or worked for Goodyear in California as an hourly non-exempt employee at any time between four years prior to the filing of the suit and the final disposition of the matter.

The case was initially filed on January 8, 2022 in Santa Clara County Superior Court before being removed to California’s Northern District Court on March 2.

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