Los Angeles, CA: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is facing an employment class action lawsuit filed by workers in California who allege there were misclassified by the retailer to avoid paying them overtime.
Filed in Los Angeles, the lawsuit alleges that Walmart misclassified its asset protection coordinators as exempt from overtime while paying them on a salary basis. However, the duties of asset protection coordinators are not exempt, according to the complaint.
"Plaintiffs are informed and believes ... that defendants engaged in a uniform policy and systematic scheme of wage abuse against their 'asset protection coordinators,' " the complaint states.
According to the lawsuit, Wal-Mart knew or should have known that the asset protection coordinators were entitled to overtime wages. Further, it contends that the failure of the world' largest retailer to provide its workers with the required rest and meal breaks violates the Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Orders.
"Defendants knew or should have known that they had a duty to compensate plaintiffs pursuant to California law and... defendants had the financial ability to pay such compensation, but willfully, knowingly and intentionally failed to do so, and falsely represented to plaintiffs that they were properly denied wages, all in order to increase defendants' profits," the suit states.
According to the complaint, under the California labor code, an employer can't require that an employee work for a period of more than eight hours in a day without meal breaks and without compensating the worker at a rate of time-and-a-half or double their pay if they work overtime hours.
The complaint asks the court to declare that Wal-Mart violated the California Labor Code, and order the company to pay general unpaid overtime and rest break wages, prejudgment interest, attorneys' fees and any other damages deemed appropriate.
The plaintiffs are represented by R. Rex Parris, Alexander R. Wheeler and Kitty K. Szeto of R. Rex Parris Law Firm, and Edwin Aiwazian of Lawyers for Justice PC. The suit is Banks et al v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., case number BC593584, in the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles.
