March 21, 2023 | By Matthew Kellogg
McCathern Los Angeles attorneys Evan Selik and Christine Zaouk recently won a significant victory for their 790 clients who are former and current employees of employees of a box manufacturing company. This was a result of a prolonged legal battle over wage and hour violations.
The company had shorted these employees of overtime wages, and minimum wages. Mr. Selik initially met with the class representative and additional employees four years ago and made the determination that they had a case. McCathern filed suit and fought with the opposing counsel to get employee records, finally obtaining them after a court order.
McCathern’s attorneys then received the business’s policy and procedures and found that they had a “rounding” policy that shorted their own employees’ time worked. McCathern then filed a class certification motion, which the Court granted making the firm counsel for all 790 former and current employees.
The opposing counsel then attempted to limit the class to those people who signed arbitration agreements. McCathern’s attorneys opposed that motion. The Court agreed with McCathern’s arguments and rejected the opposing counsel’s arguments.
With the employer facing no other options, the case was settled at mediation. Each of the class clients will now receive a significant sum of lost wages.
Mr. Selik was particularly complimentary of Ms. Zaouk’s work on this case. “She handled all the heavy lifting, from getting the employees’ records through discovery battles, finding the discrepancies in the records, drafting the motion for certification, and opposing the Defendant’s effort to reduce the class size after certification,” he said. “She was relentless and as a result of her work, it has improved our clients’ lives.”
The firm is proud of both attorneys and all the staff who assisted with this long case, and we congratulate the members of the class for receiving a well-deserved victory.