Facts

Alfred Lax was a non-exempt employee of Roto-Rooter Services Company (Roto-Rooter) who worked as a technician for the company. Lax traveled on behalf of Roto-Rooter to complete service requests and was compensated on a flat rate with potential commissions. Lax eventually initiated a class action suit against Roto-Rooter.

PLAINTIFFS' CONTENTIONS: Plaintiffs contended that defendant failed to compensate them properly because they were not paid for overtime hours. In addition to improperly calculating plaintiffs' wages, defendant also failed to compensate them for the mandatory requirement to log in 45 minutes before the start of their shifts on the phones provided by defendant. Plaintiff also did not receive accurate wage statements or meal breaks as required by law. As a result, plaintiffs contended that defendant violated the labor code and was liable to plaintiff for damages.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS: Defendant denied the contentions but agreed to settle the class claims in lieu of litigation.

Result

The court approved a $2,598,000 between the parties that included attorney fees of up to $825,000.