San Francisco, CA: Williams Sonoma is facing a potential employment class action lawsuit filed by employees who allege they were regularly forced to report for on-call shifts but were never paid appropriate reporting time wages. The San Francisco-based retailer owns Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, West Elm and Rejuvenation.
Harley Shine, lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, who worked for a Williams-Sonoma Pottery Barn located in Beverly Hills as a stockroom associate, asserts in the complaint that for a period of roughly three months in 2013 he was repeatedly scheduled for on call shifts, for which he reported but was not paid. According the lawsuit, Williams-Sonoma has a corporate practice of using on-call shifts without offering reporting time pay and that the shifts inhibit a worker' ability to plan things like family care and find supplemental employment.
"Defendants pay nonexempt employees, like those in the class, minimum, or just above minimum, wage [and] such employees often depend on the hours of work to earn a living,"the complaint states. "One effect of the defendants policy is thus to prevent employees from being able to commit to other work that will provide them with additional income [and] as a result, defendants effectively pay [employees] for part-time work, but obligate them to nearly full-time work."
Further, the lawsuit contends that Williams-Sonoma considers reporting late or failing to report for an on-call shift, which requires an employee to report by phone or in person two hours before a scheduled on-call shift or the night before an early morning on-call shift, the same as failing to report for a regular shift. However, the company fails to cite when an employee reports for an on-call shift but is not put to work.
According to California labor law, employers must pay employees reporting time pay at their regular wage for at least half of the scheduled day's work, but not fewer than two hours or more than four.
Additionally, the lawsuit contends that Shine, and possibly hundreds of other Williams-Sonoma employees throughout California, have been the victims of a "new form of wage theft"because they were never compensated when they reported to unnecessary on-call shifts or when they were cut early from work during a regularly scheduled shift.
The lawsuit seeks certification for a proposed class of plaintiffs which includes all Williams-Sonoma employees who reported to scheduled on-call shifts but were not put to work or paid accordingly from October 21, 2011, through the date of any judgment on the actions.
Shine is represented by Patrick McNicholas and Michael J. Kent of McNicholas & McNicholas LLP, Jason M. Frank and Scott H. Sims of Eagan Avenatti LLP and Richard K. Bridgeford and Michael H. Artinian of Bridgeford Gleason & Artinian. The case is Harley Shine et al v. Williams-Sonoma Inc., case number BC598805, in the Superior court for the State of California County of Los Angeles.
