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Property Management Company Overtime Lawsuit Filed

LOS ANGELES — Two months after a California judge approved a $775,000 class action settlement, FPI Management Inc., a California property management company, is facing another class action overtime lawsuit. A current FPI employee filed the new lawsuit and is seeking class certification. The employee claims the company failed to pay overtime and failed to provide adequate meal and lunch breaks under California state law. 

FPI’s first overtime wage claim arose from the misclassification of a group of its employees as exempt and denied overtime pay. As part of the settlement for the first wage claim, FPI agreed to reclassify the misclassified employees as hourly, nonexempt, and entitled to overtime pay. That settlement affected 108 FPI employees. This new claim could affect more than 350 current and former employees. However unlike the previous claim, the current lawsuit is being brought on behalf of employees who have been classified as hourly or nonexempt at some point in the last four years.

The lawsuit claims FPI had a policy of wage violations against hourly and nonexempt employees. These violations include not paying employees for work done before and after their shifts. Hourly employees were, also, allegedly denied required meal and break periods and were not compensated for the missed breaks. One of the ways the company carried out this policy was through inadequate payroll records, which should track an employee’s hours worked and meal breaks.

Both state and federal law require employers provide short, paid rest periods to employees. Federal law does not require meal periods, paid or unpaid. However, in most cases where state law provides employees with greater benefits than federal law, state law will apply over the federal law. For instance, most states require employers provide at least a 30-minute meal break if an employee works more than a 4-hour shift, so the majority of employees in the country can expect meal breaks. Many states will also specify if or when meal periods must be paid and included in overtime pay calculations. In California, employers who fail to provide meal breaks must pay the employee an extra hour of wages for each meal break denied; this is called premium pay and is frequently included in California overtime claims, like FPI’s.

Determining if your state’s meal period laws affect your overtime and wage claim can be complicated. If you believe you have been denied rest and meal breaks, you may have an overtime wage claim. Call our top rated team of overtime pay lawyers today at (855) 754-2795 to discuss your situation. Or complete the Free Unpaid Overtime Case Review form on the top right of this page and our experienced legal team will evaluate your case. If we accept your case, we will represent you under our No Fee Promise. This means there are no legal fees or costs unless you receive a settlement.

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