Operators of Caliber Collision Centers Facing Former Repairman’s Wage and Hour Suit

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A proposed class action has been filed in California against Caliber Holdings Corporation, Caliber Collision Transport Services LLC, and Caliber Bodyworks, Inc. over alleged violations of state and federal labor laws. The plaintiff in the suit, a former employee, claims he was responsible for performing body work on damaged vehicles at one of the defendants’ more than 100 collision repair centers nationwide.

According to the suit, the plaintiff and similarly situated workers were paid on a piece-rate basis based on the number of repairs completed. The wages the plaintiff earned for his hours worked, the suit explains, were “treated as an advance against [his] piece-rate/commission earnings,” meaning he only received the commission amount that exceeded his “hourly wages.” The effect, according to the complaint, was that the man was not paid separately for tasks on which he could not earn commissions, such as “cleaning and maintaining tools, performing administrative tasks and attending mandatory meetings,” which the case says frequently caused his wages to fall below the required minimum hourly rate.

Furthermore, the case argues that the defendants’ pay structure did not allow for proper calculation of employees’ overtime wages, which should have equaled one and one-half times their regular hourly rate. Moreover, time worked during missed meal breaks also went unrecorded in the companies’ timekeeping system, the lawsuit says, as employees often worked in excess of 3.5 hours without paid rest periods. From the complaint:

"Because Defendants' pay system is simply a subterfuge for a piece-rate-commission compensation system, Plaintiff and other Bodymen were encouraged to clock out for lunch without actually taking a lunch break and to clock out for the end of the day but to continue to work until all repairs were completed, resulting in many hours of off-the-clock work, and falsely reported meal periods that were never provided.”

The lawsuit, originally filed in state court, has since been moved to the District Court for the Central District of California.