LOS ANGELES — SpaceX, or Space Exploration Technologies Corp., could face a class action wage and overtime pay lawsuit. Current and former SpaceX factory employees in California design, manufacture, deploy, and maintain rockets, spacecraft, and their engines and parts. In the lawsuit, recently filed in California state court, the factory employees claim the company violated California state labor laws by denying overtime pay and requiring employees to work through meal and rest breaks.
Factory Worker Claims
Joseph Smith, a former SpaceX toolmaker, filed the lawsuit on behalf of himself and other similarly situated nonexempt factory workers who worked for SpaceX over the past three years. He claims the company altered employees’ time sheets and rounded down the number of total hours the employees worked. As a result, SpaceX denied employees credit for hours they worked, and employees allegedly received inaccurate and improperly itemized wage statements.
Smith also alleges the company required employees to work through meal and rest breaks, and failed to pay overtime for the additional work. According to the lawsuit, SpaceX required employees to choose between two short breaks or one meal break. Employees were legally entitled to receive both breaks if they worked more than a certain designated number of hours each day. The lawsuit also claims SpaceX denied employees from taking breaks until they worked at least four hours, instead of the two required by law. On occasion, the company would cut short meal breaks due to heavy workloads. The factory employees claim the company designed workload schedules that violated the state’s rest break laws.
Missed Meal Compensation
By forcing employees to work through a 30-minute lunch break, typically considered unpaid time, the employees effectively lost 30 minutes worth of benefits that normally accompanies that work. For instance, a 40 hour per week worker was denied the overtime pay for the extra two-and-a-half hours of work they completed over a five day work week. Under California law, employees are entitled to time-a-one-half for every hour worked past 40 hours, including for meal breaks. Not all states require employers to compensate for missed meal breaks, but a flat-out denial of meal breaks and overtime pay altogether violates California and federal law.
If your employer denies you meal or rest breaks, or improperly records the hours you work each day, call our top-rated team of overtime pay lawyers today at (855) 754-2795, or complete a Free Unpaid Overtime Case Review form. If we accept your case, we will represent you under our No Fee Promise. You will not be billed for legal fees or other costs unless you receive a settlement.