Acushnet Company Hit with Lawsuit Over Alleged California Labor Code Violations

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Acushnet Company faces a proposed class action over its alleged failure to properly pay California employees for all hours worked.

The lawsuit more specifically alleges Acushnet, the company behind the Titleist and FootJoy brands of golf equipment, has refused to pay workers for time spent walking through the defendant’s facility while off the clock. According to the case, workers’ travel time between where they enter the premises, where they are permitted to clock in and out, and the location of the designated break area has caused the employees to accrue unpaid wages and cut into their 30-minute meal breaks.

Moreover, the suit claims workers’ wages have been further reduced by Acushnet’s alleged practice of rounding down or “shaving” their clock-in and clock-out times to the nearest quarter-hour to the defendant’s benefit.

Per the lawsuit, California law requires employers to pay their workers for all “hours worked,” meaning all time they are under the employer’s control. The suit alleges Acushnet has “suffered, permitted, and required” hourly non-exempt employees to be subject to its control without pay and thus owes the workers unpaid minimum and overtime wages.

Acushnet employees, the filing says, typically spend three to five minutes walking through the defendant’s premises before they can clock in and after clocking out. This travel time, according to the case, causes workers to be subject to the defendant’s control for roughly 10 minutes each day without being paid for their time. Likewise, the employees must spend an additional three to five minutes walking to the designated break area near the facility’s entrance after clocking out for their meal breaks and repeat the process when returning from their breaks, the case relays.

As a result of this travel time, the lawsuit alleges, the workers are denied the full amount of the duty-free 30-minute meal periods and 10-minute rest periods to which they are entitled under California law. Moreover, the defendant has failed to provide workers with a second 30-minute meal break when they work more than 10 hours and pay them premium wages equal to one hour at their regular pay rate each time they are denied a legally compliant break, the suit attests.

The lawsuit alleges Acushnet’s practices amount to a failure to pay workers minimum wages for all hours worked and time-and-a-half overtime wages when they work more than eight hours in a day, 40 hours in a week or on any seventh consecutive day of work.

The case further claims that when Acushnet does pay overtime wages, the company leaves out workers’ bonuses from its overtime rate calculations and thus underpays them for their overtime hours.

The aforementioned pay practices have, according to the suit, caused Acushnet to violate additional California labor regulations related to the timely payment of wages and issuance of accurate wage statements.

Finally, the case claims the defendant has failed to remit all unpaid wages immediately upon an employee’s termination or within 72 hours of their resignation.

Initially filed in San Diego Superior Court, the lawsuit was removed to federal court for California’s Southern District on September 8.

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