Amazon is being sued for alleged violations of the California Labor Code. The plaintiff in the case is a former IT support technician who worked for Amazon for six months in 2019. The lawsuit seeks class action status, with the proposed class including all salaried IT workers who, in the last four years, worked for Amazon in California.
The lawsuit states that IT workers were misclassified as “exempt” and thus were not paid their due hourly wages and did not receive overtime pay. The lawsuit also states that the employees were not provided with meal breaks and paid rest breaks under California law.
How do I know if I’ve been misclassified?
Employee misclassification is a common employment law violation in California. If an employer misclassified you as an “exempt” independent contractor, you could be owed unpaid overtime and back pay for wages and breaks. In many cases, employers misclassify workers as independent contractors to avoid paying overtime and providing other benefits and protections that are required by law.
If an employer classified you as an “exempt” independent contractor, but the employer tells you how to behave, how to dress and how to do your job, you likely should be classified as a non-exempt employee and not as an independent contractor.
Also, if you were hired as a “manager” or were “promoted” to a managerial position, but most of your job duties are similar to those of non-managerial employees, you may have been misclassified as a salaried or exempt employee.
How to take action if your employment rights have been violated
If your rights were violated due to employee misclassification, you could be owed restitution for unpaid wages, as well as restitution for meal and rest breaks that were interrupted or not provided at all. Before moving ahead with your case, talk to an employment law attorney with extensive experience in wage and hour claims. To learn more about your rights in California, please see our Wage and Hour Law overview.
Source: Law Street, “Amazon Sued For Calif. Labor Code Violations,” August 2020