Penske Hit with Lawsuit Over Alleged California Labor Law Violations

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Penske Logistics, LLC and Penske Truck Leasing, Co. L.P. have violated California’s Labor Code by failing to pay employees for every hour worked, provide proper meal and rest periods and reimburse business expenses, a proposed class action claims.

According to the case, which was recently removed from Los Angeles County Superior Court to California’s Central District Court, Penske workers are owed unpaid overtime wages, compensation for breaks that were not provided and reimbursement for necessary business expenses.

The plaintiff says he worked for Penske in California as an hourly paid, non-exempt employee from August 2018 to October 2020. Per the suit, the plaintiff and other workers frequently put in more than eight hours of work per day and 40 hours per week. Nevertheless, the defendants, the case claims, “engaged in a pattern and practice of wage abuse” by failing to pay workers for every hour worked, including overtime.

“Plaintiff is informed and believes, and based thereon alleges, that Defendants knew or should have known that Plaintiff and the other class members were entitled to receive certain wages for overtime compensation and that they were not receiving accurate overtime compensation for all overtime hours worked,” the complaint alleges.

The lawsuit goes on to claim that Penske employees were not provided with proper meal and rest breaks in accordance with California law, nor an additional hour of pay at their regular rate for each missed break. According to the suit, California law provides that an employer may not require employees to work more than five hours in a day without providing a meal period of no less than 30 minutes, and no more than 10 hours per day without a second 30-minute meal period. Moreover, workers are also entitled to a 10-minute rest period for each four hours worked “or major fraction thereof” unless their daily work time amounts to less than three-and-a-half hours, the case says.

According to the suit, Penske also failed to provide workers with all owed compensation upon discharge or resignation and complete and accurate wage statements during their employment.

Finally, the lawsuit says workers were not reimbursed for necessary business-related expenses despite being entitled to such under California law.

Per the case, Penske “knew or should have known” that it had a duty to compensate workers in accordance with state law and possessed the financial ability to do so yet “willfully, knowingly, and intentionally” failed to remit appropriate wages while falsely representing that the workers were being paid properly—“all in order to increase Defendants’ profits,” the suit claims.

The lawsuit looks to cover current and former hourly paid or non-exempt employees who are California residents and worked for either of the Penske defendants in the state at any time within the past four years and until final judgment is entered in the case.

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