Wage and Hour

Goldstein, Demchak, Baller, Borgen & Dardarian is one of the leading plaintiffs' firms in the country litigating class and collective actions under the federal and state wage and hour laws.  We have won hundreds of millions of dollars in back pay for tens of thousands of employees throughout the country and the state.

State and federal laws provide protection for employee wages and benefits in a number of different ways.  Many employers misclassify their employees as "exempt" and unlawfully deprive them of overtime pay.  Without a legal consultation, many salaried employees are unaware that they are entitled to overtime (time and a half after forty hours of work per week or, in California, after eight hours of work per day).  Employers may also fail to pay for all hours worked (including pre and post shift work, for instance), fail to provide required meal and rest breaks, or institute illegal tip pools.

Under California law, vacation pay is considered wages.  Employers with "use it or lose it" vacation pay policies or vacation pay policies that require employees to work until the end of the calendar year before they have the right to take paid vacation time may be in violation of California law.

Along with co-counsel, GDBBD recently obtained a judgment totaling more than $100 million for Baristas employed by Starbucks in California for tip pooling claims.  The firm also has litigated and resolved dozens of significant cases for workers who were misclassified as "exempt" and not paid overtime and other compensation against companies such as IBM ($65 million), Siebel ($27.5 million) and Countrywide ($30 million).

The firm also has represented non-profit organizations and employees as amici curiae in a number of important wage and hour cases, and employee interests before California and federal agencies proposing regulations which would affect employee rights.

Current Cases:

• Mahoney v. AT&T
• McClendon v. Automobile Club of Southern California
• Contreras v. Bank of America
• Roussell v. Brinker Int'l, d.b.a. Chili's
• Brown v. G.S. May International
• Schueler v. H&R Block Mortgage Corporation
• Partridge, et al. v. Hott Wings, Inc. et al.
• Danieli v. IBM Corporation
• Porter v. Olan Mills, Inc.
• Garcia v. Oracle
• Meyn v. Peet's
• Wren v. RGIS
• Watts, et al. v. Sysco Corp., et al.
• Burdick v. U.S. Foodservice, Inc. (wage & hour violations)
  

Past Cases:

• Angione v. PSS World Medical, Inc.
  
• Bullock v. Automotive Club of Southern California
• Butler v. Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. (unpaid overtime, missed meal periods and unlawful pay deductions)
• Byrd v. Sprint, Inc.
  
• Chau v. Starbucks Corporation (California tip-pooling)
• Davis v. The Money Store
• DeSoto v. Sears Roebuck & Co.
• Ellmore v. Ditech Funding Corporation and GMAC Mortgage
• Gabriel v. Verizon Communications
• Levy v. Verizon Information Services, Inc.
• Lin v. Siebel Systems, Inc., (unpaid overtime)
• Lipnick v. Sprint
• Miskell v. Auto Club of Southern California
• Mousai v. E-Loan, Inc.
• Otero v. Rent-A-Center (California)
• Ramirez v. Labor Ready, Inc. (formerly Yarbrough v. Labor Ready)
• Rankin v. Longs Drug Stores
• Riley v. Aegis Mortgage Corp.
• Rosenburg v. IBM Corp.
  
• Scheid v. Fremont
  
• Sequeira v. CKE Restaurants, Inc., d.b.a. Carls Junior
• Sims v. Downey Savings and Loans Association
• Thomas v. California State Automobile Association
• Tokar v. GEICO
  
• Vasquez v. Bank of America, N.A.
• Weddle v. Frito-Lay, Inc.