18th Annual Workplace Class Action Report - 2022 Edition

40 Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report: 2022 Edition 5. $8.5 million – California Labor Commissioner v. Adat Shalom Board & Care Inc. , Case No. 19- STCV-21698 (Cal. Super. Ct. Oct. 20, 2021) (following an investigation by the California Labor Commissioner, the company settled claims related to live-in caregivers for unpaid wages, overtime, missed meal-period pay, liquidated damages, and interest). 6. $6 million – Austin, et al. v. United States , Case No. 13-CV-00446 (Ct. Fed. Cl. May 28, 2021) (final approval granted for settlement of a class action filed by a group of healthcare workers that they were denied additional pay when working on federal holidays). 7. $5.5 million – EEOC v. JBS USA LLC , Case No. 10-CV-2103 (D. Colo. June 8, 2021) (consent decree approved in EEOC lawsuit alleging discrimination against Somali Muslim employees). 8. $5.3 million – San Francisco Office Of Labor Standards Enforcement v. DoorDash , Case No. MWO-917 (SFOLSE Nov. 16, 2021) (settlement agreement stemming from investigation by the San Francisco Labor Standards Office that food delivery company misclassified workers as independent contractors and used tips to subsidize their base pay). 9. $3.85 million – U.S. Department Of Labor v. FIS Holdings Inc. (DOL April 28, 2021) (settlement agreement stemming from the DOL’s investigation of unpaid overtime compensation for 1,000 pipeline workers in 40 states). 10. $3.525 million – EEOC v. Aerotek (EEOC Oct. 1, 2021) (settlement agreement following federal systemic investigation of alleged failure to recruit and denial of assignments/placements to individuals based on age, sex, and race). C. Noteworthy Injunctive Relief Provisions In Class Action Settlements Generally, the types of relief obtained in settlements of employment discrimination actions can be grouped into five categories, including: (i) modification of internal personnel practices and procedures; (ii) oversight and monitoring of corporate practices; (iii) mandatory training of supervisory personnel and employees; (iv) compensation for named plaintiffs and class members; and (v) an award of attorneys’ fees and costs for class counsel. In addition to substantial payments for overtime liability, settlements of FLSA collective actions often involve changes to payroll practices and procedures. In ERISA class action settlements, the terms typically include monetary payments along with injunctive orders barring fiduciaries and third-parties from serving as plan fiduciaries. Class action settlements often involving private plaintiffs generally contain one or more of these items of non- monetary relief, but rarely contain all of them. Attorneys representing the U.S. government in enforcement litigation actions also secured several settlements in 2021 that included noteworthy injunctive provisions. This reflects in some measure the significant “public interest” component of government-initiated enforcement litigation. Among the more novel and/or onerous non-monetary relief requirements imposed on employers in 2021 were the following; • Provide workers with transparent masks to better assist hearing-impaired customers; • Conduct a “lessons learned” presentation for all business unit managers that focuses on the anti- discrimination laws; • Refrain from entering into or enforcing no-poach agreements with competitors; • Provide retroactive seniority and benefits to aggrieved individuals; • Use a new candidate selection device, developed by a third-party test developer, that has no statistically significant adverse impact on the basis of race;