Quest Diagnostics, the clinical laboratory giant, was recently sued by a former employee for alleged violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and California state law. According to Law 360 (subscription required), the former referral and testing assistant filed a class action on behalf of more than 500 employees who worked in similar positions with the company.
The complaint asserts that the plaintiff and others routinely worked in excess of 40 hours per week for which they were not paid. Federal and state law mandates that employers compensate employees at time-and-a-half for these hours. Although Quest had a policy of paying referral and testing assistants certain incentive payments, the company did not include the incentive payments in employees’ hourly rate when calculating the overtime rate.
Employees are entitled to compensation for all hours worked, and the failure to pay based upon actual hourly rate is wage theft. If you have questions regarding your compensation, please contact the attorneys in Sommers Schwartz’s Employment Litigation Group.
Jason J. Thompson
Jason Thompson is a nationally board certified trial attorney and co-chairs Sommers Schwartz’s Complex Litigation Department. He has a formidable breadth of litigation experience, including class action and multidistrict litigation (MDL), and practices nationwide in both state and federal courts.
