SAN DIEGO – Current and former San Diego city employees allege that they were underpaid for their overtime hours.
Alberto Arellano, Maico Alejo and Gary Ollision, on behalf of themselves and all other employees similarly situated, filed a complaint on Jan. 31 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California against the city of San Diego and Does 1 through 10 alleging violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
According to the complaint, the plaintiffs allege that they worked for the defendant more than 40 hours in one or more seven-day workweeks. The suit states in June 2017, the defendants notified employees that the city "will include in an employee’s FLSA overtime calculations the cash value of any flexible benefit credits that they did not use to pay for health, dental, vision or life insurance."
The plaintiffs hold the city of San Diego responsible because the defendant allegedly failed to include all remuneration paid to or on behalf of the employees, including flex dollars, in an employees' regular rate of pay for purposes of calculating the employees' overtime rate of pay.
The plaintiffs request a trial by jury and seek judgment for attorneys' fees, costs and prejudgment interest, and for such other and further relief as to the court may deem just and proper. They are represented by Eli Naduris-Weissman and Hannah Weinstein of Rothner, Segall & Greenstone in Pasadena.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California case number 3:18-cv-00229-BAS-MDD