Wage & Hour Counsel : Wage & Hour Lawyer & Attorney : Littler Mendelson Law Firm : Employment Law, Labor Relations

Nationwide continuously maintained that Special Investigators were properly classified as exempt administrative employees under federal and state wage and hour law. To qualify for the FLSA’s administrative exemption, employees must be compensated at a rate not less than $455 per week; their “primary duty” must be the “performance of office or non-manual work directly related to the management or general business operations of the employer or the employer’s customers;” and the primary duty must include “the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance.” In March 2010, the court found that Nationwide had satisfied the first two elements of the administrative exemption test, but determined that material issues of fact existed as to the third element.

In September 2011, a two-week trial commenced before U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus Jr. on the remaining issue of whether the Special Investigators’ primary duty includes the exercise of discretion and independent judgment. The parties called sixteen witnesses to testify at the trial, submitted testimony from two additional witnesses via deposition transcript, and admitted dozens of exhibits into evidence. The court ultimately concluded that the Special Investigators’ primary duty is to conduct investigations into suspicious claims for the purpose of resolving indicators of fraud present in those claims. The court further concluded that this primary duty includes the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance in at least two ways: Special Investigators: (1) are tasked with resolving indicators of fraud; and (2) have nearly unilateral discretion to refer claims to law enforcement or the National Insurance Crime Bureau (“NICB”).

While the plaintiffs contended that resolving indicators of fraud was merely the gathering and reporting of facts, the court disagreed. The court concluded that the Special Investigators determine the truth about what happened on a suspicious claim, which “necessarily requires judgment and discretion.” The court noted that nearly all of the Special Investigators who testified at trial characterized their investigations as searches for the truth and that “A doctorate in philosophy is not required to realize that the ‘truth’ is not an entirely objective concept. Determining truth requires ‘factual findings,’ a process that necessarily requires judgment and discretion.” In addition, because the Special Investigators’ resolution of fraud indicators can have an influence on a claims adjuster’s decision to pay or deny a claim, they exercised discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance.

The plaintiffs also claimed that referrals to law enforcement and NICB are automatic. However, the court noted that such referrals are made when the Special Investigator is unable to resolve the indicators of fraud. Accordingly, the judgment and discretion that is inherent in the resolution of fraud indicators also attaches to the decision to make a referral. In addition, because these referrals can subject individuals to criminal prosecution, they pertain to matters of significance.

Finally, because the parties stipulated that the New York claims would rise or fall with the FLSA claims, the court awarded judgment to Nationwide on those state claims, and also awarded judgment to Nationwide on the California state law claims after determining that the Special Investigators satisfied the California Labor Code requirement that they are “primarily engaged in the duties that” meet the administrative exemption, and “customarily and regularly exercise[] discretion and independent judgment in performing” those duties.

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Starbucks initially demurred and moved to strike Price’s allegations related to his claim for improper wage statements under California Labor Code section 226. The demurrer was sustained, thereby dismissing Price’s claim on the basis that he had not alleged sufficient injury as required by the statute.

The Court of Appeal agreed, noting that in order to recover under section 226, “an employee must suffer injury as a result of a knowing and intentional failure by an employer to comply with the statute,” and the injury required by this section “cannot be satisfied simply if one of the nine itemized requirements in section 226, subdivision (a) is missing from a wage statement.” Citing, Jaimez v. Daiohs USA, Inc., 181 Cal. App. 4th 1286, 1306 (2010); see also Elliot v. Spherion Pacific Work, LLC, 572 F. Supp. 2d 1169, 1181 (C.D.Cal. 2008). Although Price alleged a “mathematical injury,” the court found that because no computations were required in order for him to analyze whether the wages paid in fact compensated him for all hours worked, such allegations were insufficient. Moreover, Price’s “speculation” regarding possible underpayment was, according to the Court of Appeal, not sufficient to state a section 226 claim.

Following the successful initial ruling, Starbucks also moved for summary judgment on the remaining claims, arguing that Price had been appropriately paid reporting time pay when he was provided with two hours of pay for the termination meeting and that all remaining claims were derivative of the reporting time pay claim. California’s Wage Orders provide:

Each workday an employee is required to report for work and does report, but is not put to work or is furnished less than half said employee’s usual or scheduled day’s work, the employee shall be paid for half the usual or scheduled day’s work, but in no event for less than two (2) hours nor more than four (4) hours, at the employee’s regular rate of pay, which shall not be less than the minimum wage. Cal. Wage Order 5-2001, Section 5(A) (2007).

Both the trial court and Court of Appeal agreed with Starbucks, holding that an employee who comes in for a meeting, as opposed to a regular work shift, is owed only two hours of pay at his or her regular rate. Thus, even though Price regularly worked more than four hours per shift, and thus may have been owed more pay if he had been sent home early on a regular workday, he had no expectation of working a full shift on the day he reported for the “talk.” Accordingly, only the minimum payment rules applied and Starbucks appropriately compensated Price for the meeting.

This entry was written by Michelle Heverly.

Photo credit: Matthew John Hollinshead