I might have not added this to the actual opinion, but in all honesty, here's what I was be thinking in my head as I got to the end of the thing
"Finally, we wish to add one personal note to the defendant in this case, Sierra Lifestar, Inc:
For the love of God, would you please just pay these people what they're owed?
They're paramedics and emergency medical technicians, for the most part. You pay them minimum wage. I'll repeat that one more time: Minimum wage. Yes, you give them the occasional bonus. Like $100 every year for National Emergency Medical Services Week. That's great of you, and I'm sure they appreciate it, and hopefully things like that boost morale (and thus productivity) at your company.
But as you basically admit, you don't take those bonuses into account when you're paying them overtime and the like. Which every one of them gets. As a result, you pay them the princely sum of $22.50/hour for over-40 hours of work ($15 multiplied by time and a half), instead of the slightly higher figure to which they'd be entitled if you included the "bonus" in their time and a half calculation.
There are 135 people in the class. 135. That's not a huge class action. The class is collectively seeking, soaking wet, $462,450 in additional payments.
Again: Would you simply just pay these employees what they're owed?
Yes, I know. You successfully convinced the trial court not to certify the class, on the grounds that the 135 employees occasionally received 'different types' of bonuses. But the Court of Appeal has, thankfully, now reversed that decision, and sent it back down. So you're still potentially facing a class action.
But more importantly, if you owe the people, just pay them. I'm sure you've spent tens, if not hundreds, of thousands on lawyers already. You'll spend tens or hundreds of thousands more. And it's 135 people, and at least thus far, your principal way of trying to get out of the suit has been to try to take advantage of the fact that 134 of these people haven't yet gotten it together to get a lawyer to seek what they're owed.
These are minimum wage workers. Minimum wage emergency medical workers, for the most part.
Is it really so absurd to ask you to simply count their $100/year bonus as part of their time-and-a-half calculation, so instead of getting $100, they essentially get the break-the-bank sum of $150/year? Particularly if, in fact, that's what's affirmatively required by California law.
In short: Settle this thing. Now. Seriously."
I get why Justice Franson doesn't say that. (Or anything like it.)
But that was my definite personal feeling on this one.
One last thing. Don't forget to run that final proofread for the "!" marks in the opinion before you put it in final and send it out for publication. I say that in reference to the "!(CT
241:17-242:5)!" that appears at the top of page 5.
Otherwise: Love it.
