Rite Aid Unpaid Security Search Time California Class Action

This California labor law class action brings familiar complaints about off-the-clock work, overtime, and meal breaks against Rite Aid Corporation and Thrifty Payless, Inc. The first eight causes of action are intended as class action claims under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 23. The ninth is brought on behalf of the California Labor and workforce Development Agency (LWDA) “to collect civil penalties arising from Defendants’ labor law violations…”

The class for this action under Rule 23 is all individuals employed at Rite Aid stores in California as non-exempt employees during the class period, that is, at any time between July 31, 2016 and the trial date in this case. The class period for the ninth cause is May 6, 2019 and the trial date.

Plaintiff Marion Lemons worked as a non-exempt retail employee at one of Rite Aid’s approximately 550 stores in California. She worked at a Rite Aid in Vallejo, California from around April 1999 to around November 2019.

When employees at a Rite Aid clock out, they are then required to undergo a search of their persons and any possessions or bags they are carrying. This is a work requirement, but employees are not paid for the time it takes, which is normally around five minutes, but sometimes ten minutes or longer. They are required to do the same for periods that are purported to be meal periods.

According to the complaint, much of the time taken in these searches is overtime, that is, time worked over forty hours in a week, eight hours in a day, or twelve hours in a day. Thus, the complaint claims, that time should be compensated at time-and-a-half or double time.

Also, under California law, companies are supposed to provide employees with meal periods of no less than thirty uninterrupted minutes, during which time they are relieved of all duties. However, the required searches cut into this time, leaving them with meal breaks of less than thirty minutes.

When employers do not allow employees their full, uninterrupted meal breaks, they are required by law to pay them an extra hour of pay for the day. The complaint claims that Rite Aid fails to provide the required meal breaks, fails to pay them the extra hour, and fails to pay them for the time they spend in the search lines.

Such violations lead to “downstream” violations, such as failure to provide accurate, itemized wage statements, because, the complaint says, the wage statements then naturally do not accurately show all hours worked and all wages due. Similarly, they cannot then be paid all wages due on their paydays. Finally, they are then also not paid all wages due at termination.

Furthermore, the complaint alleges, “Each violation of California law by Defendants as alleged herein constitutes a separate and distinct unfair and unlawful business practice in violation of [the] California Business & Professions Code…”

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