A
court of appeals has given the go ahead to a lawsuit charging that Cintas
Corp., a company that leases and launders uniforms, didn’t comply with the Los
Angeles living wage ordinance and regulations as to employees at its Whittier,
Pico Rivera, and Ontario facilities who worked at least 20 hours per month
performing tasks related to Cintas’ contract with the Los Angeles Department of
Water and Power (DWP).1 The Los Angeles ordinance prescribes minimum wage rates for
employees of private firms who work on service contracts benefiting the city; employees
are covered by the ordinance if they work at least 20 hours a month on the
service contract. The suit alleged that Cintas paid hourly wages less than those
required by the ordinance.
The HR Management & Compliance Report: How To Comply with California Wage & Hour Law, explains everything you need to know to stay in compliance with the state’s complex and ever-changing rules, laws, and regulations in this area. Coverage on bonuses, meal and rest breaks, overtime, alternative workweeks, final paychecks, and more.
One of Cintas’s arguments
was that the suit could not be certified as a class action because it wasn’t
possible to determine
from company records which employees worked at least 20 hours per month on the DWP
contract. But the appeals court said that Cintas couldn’t defeat class
certification because it failed to keep track of which employees worked on DWP
contracts, particularly because its contract with the DWP required it to keep
such records.
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1 Aguiar v. Cintas
Corporation No. 2,
Court of Appeals (Dist. 2) No. B182477, 2006