Fresenius USA Hit with Suit Over Alleged Meal Break Violations, Off-the-Clock Work

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A proposed class action lawsuit recently removed to California federal court details claims from a former Fresenius USA, Inc. truck driver who says the company and co-defendant Fresenius USA Manufacturing, Inc. failed to pay proper wages. 

The lawsuit alleges the medical equipment distributors have failed to provide employees in California with timely, uninterrupted meal periods. More specifically, the case says the defendants regularly require proposed class members to work in excess of five consecutive hours each day without a 30-minute “continuous and uninterrupted” meal period or with one additional hour’s worth of compensation for meal periods that were not provided by the end of the fifth or 10^th hour of daily work. According to the case, the defendants do not have acceptable policies in place to verify that employees are taking meal breaks.

Also at issue are 10-minute timely and duty-free rest breaks – or the pay required when such breaks are skipped – the plaintiff claims were not provided after working in excess of four consecutive hours per day.

“Throughout the time period involved in this case, [the defendants] maintained a policy and practice of requiring [the named plaintiff], the Class, and the Aggrieved Employees to perform work ‘off-the-clock’ by working in lieu of taking required meal and rest periods, and by working during non-scheduled hours, uncompensated,” the case reads. “[The defendants] did not pay [the named plaintiff], the Class, and the Aggrieved Employees for this work time, and some of this time should have been paid at the overtime rate.”

According to the complaint, the plaintiff worked six days per week, roughly 14 hours per day for the defendants from May 2008 through April 2017. The man claims he was fired in retaliation for complaining about the defendants’ alleged wage practices.