Facts

On February 2, 2021, Kiana Matthews filed a putative class action complaint against Pinterest Inc. in San Francisco Superior for wage-and-hour violations. Matthews, who was paid hourly and employed by Magnit LLC, a staffing agency, asserted that Pinterest failed to: pay overtime wages by paying only for scheduled hours rather than actual hours worked which were in excess of eight hour days and/or 40 hours per week; provide statutorily-mandated meal and/or rest periods; and, pay minimum wages by not paying for work performed outside scheduled hours, including reviewing work emails, attending company required post-shift events, and donning and doffing uniforms. Plaintiff further noted that defendants did not include bonuses or incentives with the regular rate of pay for purposes of compensating for paid sick leave. Other violations alleged by plaintiff included: failure to pay wages timely on termination or to provide employees with accurate, itemized statements; and failure to reimburse necessary expenditures required for the performance of duties. Mathews alleged a putative class that consisted of all non-exempt employees of Pinterest who worked in California as well as any employees of any staffing agency that placed its employees at Pinterest in California during the relevant time period. Plaintiff, Pinterest, and Magnit all participated in mediation with well-respected wage and hour mediator Mark Rudy in which the parties reached a settlement.

DEFENDANTS' CONTENTIONS: Defendants denied all material contentions, asserting that plaintiff failed to provide factual instances of purported violations supporting her allegations and alleging that it never employed plaintiff at all. Moreover, defendant argued that plaintiff attempted to lump together an unknown number of employers into a single class; attempted to expand her claims to include not just one job title but an unknown number of various jobs and titles; and offered no specific practice that affected all members in the same way on which would be the basis of liability. Finally, defendants denied that class certification was appropriate for this case but nevertheless agreed to certify the class for settlement purposes only.

Settlement Discussions

The parties participated in mediation on March 9, 2023 with Mark Rudy, Esq. While not reaching a settlement that day, the parties continued negotiation talks and ultimately agreed to settle.

Result

The case settled for $3,350,000.