LG Electronics Pay, Overtime, Breaks California Class Action

LG Electronics USA, Inc. makes home appliances, electronics, and mobile communications products— refrigerators, air conditioners, cell phones, televisions, washing machines, and so on. Unfortunately, the complaint for this California class action makes allegations that are all too common—that employees are not paid for all hours worked and not properly compensated for missed meal or rest breaks—plus a few others. It brings suit under the California Labor Code, Industrial Welfare Commission wage orders, and the California Business and Professions Code.

Plaintiff Taijin Park worked for LG as a non-exempt employee, from around May 2014 to around February 17, 2020.

Park claims that during his term of employment, he worked more than eight hours per day or forty hours per week, but was not given proper pay for the overtime hours. He says he had to review documents and attend internal company meetings outside of his scheduled shifts. According to the complaint, LG did not pay him at least California’s minimum wage for all hours worked, and it denied his requests for overtime pay.

Another claim the complaint makes is that Park was not given the required meal and rest breaks. He says he was, for example, required to work through his lunch break. While this is not in itself illegal, California law requires companies who do this to compensate employees with an extra hour’s pay for the day. The law also requires that meal and rest periods be given at specific intervals.

Park alleges that he was neither given breaks at the proper intervals nor provided with the additional hour of pay. On some days, when he worked a shift of more than ten hours, he was not provided with the required second meal break.

Because of the lack of proper payments while Park was working for LG, he had not received all wages due, within the required period, at the end of his employment. California law provides that in such situations, workers are “entitled to continuing wages” for up to another thirty days. The complaint adds, “[LG’s] conduct of forcing [Park] and other employees to execute a release of wage claims in order to receive their final pay is unconscionable and in violation of [the] California Labor Code…”

The complaint further claims that LG did not keep an accurate account of Park’s working hours and did not provide him with accurate and detailed wage statements.

Finally, the complaint claims the company never compensated him for unused vacation time.

The class for this action is all non-exempt LG employees who worked in California at any time between September 9, 2016 through the date of filing of a motion for certification of the class in this case.

A number of subclasses have also been proposed:

• Minimum Wage Subclass
• Overtime Subclass
• Rest Period Subclass
• Meal Period Subclass
• Paid Time Off Subclass
• Waiting Time Penalty Subclass

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Employment
Tags: Employment Violations, Inaccurate calculation of breaks, Not Paid for All Hours Worked, Unpaid Overtime, Vacation Pay