CVS agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit that accused the pharmacy of improperly compensating employees for off-the-clock training.
A federal judge ordered the pharmacy to pay $10,371,346 to the class of pharmacists who brought the lawsuit.
The class, composed of nearly 25,000 pharmacists, alleged that CVS didn’t pay them proper overtime wages.
The complaint, filed by lead plaintiff Sevag Chalin, stated that CVS required pharmacists to complete training modules outside their scheduled shifts.
CVS did not pay the employees for the actual time spent on this training.
Instead, the employer compensated pharmacists only for the time it expected it would take to complete the modules. This is a violation of the California Labor Code.
Two Classes Under the Lawsuit
Sevag Chalin filed an initial complaint against CVS in 2016 for this violation.
That complaint consolidated with a similar case in 2020. As a result, two separate classes are certified in this class-action lawsuit.
The first class is the Pharmacist Settlement Class. It is made up of hourly, non-exempt pharmacists who worked at CVS between July 2012 and October 2020.
To be a member of the class, pharmacists had to work in regions 65 and 72 in California. Additionally, pharmacists’ claims must not have been subject to arbitration. This also had to be the first lawsuit in which the pharmacist recognized their complaint.
The class members also had to prove that their module data activity did not align with their timesheets.
The second class, the Retail Pharmacy Settlement Class, includes certain individuals not eligible for the Pharmacist Settlement Class.
These members are hourly, non-exempt retail pharmacists employed by CVS between August 2014 and October 2020 who did not previously recognize their claim.
Anticipated Damages for Affected Pharmacists
The $10.4 million settlement amount will first be used to cover attorney fees, litigation costs, and other administrative expenses incurred by the lawsuit.
Once that money is paid out, the remaining amount will be divided among the 24,700 class members. Attorneys expect each class member to receive around $300.
CONTACT OUR RIVERSIDE EMPLOYMENT ATTORNEYS
When a group of employees shares a common complaint against their employer, they can pursue a class-action lawsuit. Unfortunately, cases of unpaid training like this are common among large corporations.
In California, class-action lawsuits hold employers accountable for these wrongful actions against their workforce, protecting future employees from harm and compensating past or current employees.
At the Workplace Rights Law Group, our Riverside employment attorneys passionately advocate for California workers.
With nearly 100 years of combined experience in employment law and millions of dollars recovered for our clients, we know how to take on large companies like CVS.
If you are a current or former employee of CVS and want to join the class action lawsuit, give one of our Riverside employment attorneys a call at 818-446-1045 for a free case review.
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Theo Khachaturian
Theo is a trial & appellate lawyer whose practice has emphasized wage-and-hour class actions, business disputes, wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, and intellectual property theft. He has tried civil cases and argued before various California Courts of Appeal.