The security firm ignored 20 settlement offers and ended up paying eleven times the deal
Two security officers settled their wage claim against GardaWorld for $50,000. The legal fees alone came to eleven times that.
A federal court in Washington, D.C. on October 19 ordered the security firm to pay $542,674 in attorney fees and $9,988.36 in costs after what it described as years of contentious litigation over unpaid wages. Combined with the settlement, GardaWorld’s total bill landed at $552,662.36.
The workers sued in December 2023, alleging GardaWorld put them in security officer roles without paying the mandatory security officer minimum wage under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the D.C. Minimum Wage Act. They also brought claims under the D.C. Wage Payment and Collection Law, plus unjust enrichment and breach of contract.
Getting there was messy. A magistrate judge found “gamesmanship” by defence counsel during discovery. The court itself identified “real problems” with how the defendant had conducted the case.
After failed mediation and a contested summary judgment motion, the court largely sided with the workers - holding that a reasonable jury could conclude they qualified as security officers entitled to the higher minimum wage. GardaWorld did prevail on narrower points: one worker could not claim wages for the period before she obtained her security officer certification in November 2024, and a co-defendant property manager, JLL, saw its exposure cut to just...
Health care entities may be able to pay less than half the steep fines ordinarily associated with False Claims Act (FCA) violations by voluntarily reporting issues under a new pilot program launche...