Our firm represents men and women who have claims against their employers either because they are forced to work off the clock and are not paid, or work overtime without compensation. It is generally most effective to represent clients with such claims by filing a class-action. In such a case our clients can serve as class representatives of all employees who have similar claims.

"Off the clock" claims have been brought successfully in Washington against Taco Bell, Nordstrom's, Boeing, Magnolia Hi-Fi and others. All of these claims involve individuals who are asked to perform extra work for their employers but are not paid for the work.

OVERTIME CLAIMS
We have represented workers in class actions brought against several different baking companies, Gai's Bakery, Oroweat, and U.S. Bakery which have resulted in settlements providing for back pay of claimed overtime. We have also brought claims and achieved settlements against Scully Transportation, Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, and Aramark.
Employers like the baking companies and Dreyer’s do not pay overtime to their drivers who deliver and shelve products in stores, restaurants and convenience stores because they believe that the drivers are exempt from overtime laws because they are "outside salesmen", a category of employee that is not entitled to overtime under Washington Law. Aramark claimed their drivers who delivered uniforms, towels and other items to accounts were in this classification.

Sometimes the employees in our cases are union members. The employers have tried to dismiss the claims on the grounds that Federal labor law preempts the claims of some of the drivers because they are members of a union and the collective bargaining agreements determine their rights. Two separate Courts of Appeal in Washington have rejected this position.

We also have brought and settled a claim against one of Seattle’s largest law firms, Preston Gates & Ellis. This firm used, for the most part, recent law school graduates to review documents for purposes of litigation. Our clients claimed they were entitled to overtime compensation. The law firm defended on the basis that our clients were exempt professionals who should not be paid overtime. After the trial court certified out class and denied the law firm’s motion for summary judgment, the case was settled with an agreement to pay a portion of the claimed back pay and to pay overtime in the future to such employees.

The total settlement amounts paid by employers in these cases now exceeds $8,000,000.00. Other employers in our state do not pay overtime compensation when required and we plan to bring more claims on behalf of employees who should be paid.