The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California recently handed a win to employees seeking to bring multiple wage and hour claims in a lawsuit. That case, Ayala v. U.S. Xpress Enterprises, Inc., involved a class action brought by drivers for a transport services company (USX). According to the drivers, the company violated California wage and hour laws by paying drivers by the length of the trip rather than by the time employees spent on each trip.
USX provides transporting services, including truckload shipping. Its truckload drivers haul customers’ cargo to various locations in the contiguous United States. USX pays for some of their work based on the approximate delivery distance, rather than on the number of hours worked. California law considers such a flat pay system to constitute a “piece-rate” method of payment. Under California law, workers paid via such a method must also be compensated for “nonproductive time separate from any piece-rate compensation.”
As is often the case in complex litigation, the company attempted to streamline the matter by seeking to dismiss one portion of the case. Specifically, the employer filed a motion to dismiss the workers’ claim under California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL). To that end, the company argued that the UCL claim sought remedies that were redundant and already covered by the relief sought in other portions of the lawsuit, namely the drivers’ labor code claim for wage and hour violations.
Here’s why this...
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