A new class action lawsuit has accused the San Francisco Opera of allegedly shorting their workers overtime pay, denying them meal breaks and allegedly committing other violations of California's wage and hour laws.
"Plaintiff and the other class members worked in excess of eight hours in a day, and/or in excess of 40 hours in a week," the lawsuit states.
"Defendants intentionally and willfully failed to pay overtime wages owed to Plaintiff and the other class members."
Failure to pay overtime violates California state law and entitles the defendants to back wages, interest and attorney fees, says the suit says, filed in San Francisco Superior Court.
The lawsuit seeks to represent, "all current and former hourly-paid or non-exempt employees" of the San Francisco Opera over the past four years.
Among the questions to be resolved by the law are whether failing to pay employees for all their hours worked and miss meal and rest breaks was an official corporate policy of the Opera, the suit states.
The opera "knew or should have known that Plaintiff and the other class members were entitled to receive certain wages for overtime compensation and that they were not receiving accurate overtime compensation for all overtime hours worked," according to the complaint.
Under California law, employers can't require employees to work more than 10 hours a day, "without providing the employee with a second uninterrupted meal period of not less than 30 minutes," the suit alleges.
The second meal period can be waived if the work day is 12 hours or less, according to the suit, "by mutual consent of the employer and the employee only if the first meal period was not waived."
For those shifts in which a required meal break was not provided, employees are entitled to an hour of pay, the lawsuit contends.
Ten-minutes rest periods are required for every four hours worked, the suit says.
"Defendants required Plaintiff and other class members to work four or more hours without authorizing or permitting a ten minute
rest period per each four-hour period worked," the lawsuit states.
The suit seeks back wages, interest, attorney fees and other unspecified demages.
The plaintiffs are represented by attorney Arby Aiwazian of Lawyer for Justice PC, of Glendale.
Hooks v. San Francisco Operate Association, San Francisco Superior Court, CGC-23-608130