Sanford Heisler Sharp Files Suit Against Weee! in California Superior Court

PALO ALTO, Calif., March 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A team of employment lawyers from Sanford Heisler Sharp filed a lawsuit which was published on Friday against Weee! Logistics, Inc., & Weee! Inc. in the Superior Court of California, Alameda County on behalf of delivery drivers who say that the companies have systematically violated their rights under the California Labor Code. Weee! is North America's largest supplier of Asian and Hispanic grocery products. The alleged violations include the Weee! defendants making unlawful deductions from drivers' tips, failing to provide drivers with adequate meal periods and failing to pay for work performed during unpaid meal breaks, misclassifying over 100 drivers as independent contractors, and ignoring numerous laws and regulations designed to protect employees' health and safety.

Plaintiffs Yi "Sunny" Song and Xiangyang "James" Ji are represented in the matter by a Sanford Heisler Sharp team led by Qiaojing Ella Zheng, Managing Partner of the firm's Palo Alto and San Francisco offices, and Andrew Melzer, New York Partner and co-chair of the firm's wage and hour practice.

"Weee! has a long history of denying its delivery drivers the tips, pay, and regular meal breaks to which they are entitled, as well as putting their health and safety in jeopardy," said Zheng. "To perpetuate these violations, Weee! implements policies that prevent employees from discussing their wages and working conditions with each other or outsiders; it punishes them if they do so; and retaliates against them if they protest the Labor Code infractions they regularly endure. The company has made every effort to suppress these complaints and discourage its delivery drivers from speaking up to demand lawful treatment. The time has come to break the silence and end Weee!'s egregious labor practices."

Song has worked as a Weee! delivery driver in the company's warehouse in Union City, CA, since April 25, 2021. Ji worked as a delivery driver in Weee!'s Union City warehouse from March 23, 2021, to July 19, 2021, when he was fired in retaliation for reporting and protesting the company's Labor Code violations.

Weee!'s drivers make daily grocery deliveries for the company. Much of their compensation comes in the form of customer tips. Weee tells customers that 100% of tips will go to the drivers, as customers intend. The delivery drivers allege, however, that Weee! takes a substantial part of the tips for itself when processing customers' orders.

Both Song and Ji noticed substantial irregularities in their tip compensation, including the company withholding significant amounts of designated tips–comprising as much as two-thirds of the amounts their customers tipped. They brought their concerns to the attention of Weee!'s management and human resources.

In July 2021, a customer who was concerned that drivers might not be receiving the full amounts of their tips complained to the company regarding its lack of transparency in tip payments. The following day, a Weee! human resources manager sent messages to all drivers, chastising them for speaking to customers about their tips and threatening drivers with "disciplinary action" for disseminating "any improper statements" about tipping.

In addition to withholding the full amount of tips paid to drivers, the company also allegedly misclassified approximately 100 of them as independent contractors. Weee! classified a comparable group of drivers as company employees. Weee! treats both groups of delivery drivers identically, and both groups perform identical duties and responsibilities under Weee!'s control.

Weee! also requires its delivery drivers to work during their mandated meal periods rather than compensate them for overtime hours that would be needed to complete their routes. The company told Song, Ji, and other drivers that they were required to clock out for a full meal period during each work shift but that they should keep performing deliveries while clocked out for lunch.   The sole purpose of clocking out is to create a false record of taking a meal break. As a result, Song, Ji and other similarly aggrieved drivers routinely work more than five consecutive hours without a meal break. Further, the delivery drivers are not compensated for working through unpaid breaks, including for hours that should be paid at a time-and-a-half overtime rate.

The Complaint likewise details Weee!'s scheme to steal earned wages from its hourly employees, including by failing to pay them their wages in a timely fashion after they leave the company's employment, as well as describing its illegal requirement of maintaining confidentiality about their compensation and their dangerous working conditions in order to remain employed.

Workplace dangers described in the Complaint include Weee!'s routine use of dry ice in its delivery vehicles, exposing its drivers to conditions which are potentially harmful to their eyes and hands and create a risk of asphyxiation, loss of consciousness, and death. Weee! fails to provide delivery drivers sufficient eye and hand protection or adequate training for handling dry ice. Weee! also fails to provide eye protection to delivery drivers who routinely handle highly reflective packaging under direct sunlight, and to consistently provide face coverings during COVID-19 pandemic.

When the plaintiffs protested these dangerous workplace conditions to Weee!'s management, they were retaliated against for speaking out–another violation of the Labor Code. Ji was, in fact, terminated for engaging in such legally protected reporting and protests.

Song's and Ji's action is filed on behalf of all present and former similarly aggrieved hourly workers, as well as on behalf of the State of California and its Labor and Workforce Development Agency to recover civil penalties under the Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 ("PAGA"). The suit seeks civil penalties for the Labor Code violations, PAGA penalties on behalf of the State, lost wages and other damages, and attorneys' fees and other legal costs.

The Complaint's class action claims include claims for unlawful deductions and misappropriation of tip compensation, unpaid wages including overtime wages, failure to provide adequate meal breaks, provision of inaccurate wage statements, and failure to pay wages due to employees upon their separation from the Company. The class consists of all delivery drivers in California from March 4, 2018 through the date of final judgment. On behalf of the members of the class, plaintiffs seek lost tips and wages, meal break penalties, restitution, and other appropriate relief.

"When it comes to fair wages and working conditions, Weee! doesn't deliver," said Mr. Melzer. "Weee! deprives its drivers of their full compensation and commits a variety of Labor Code violations that place them and their families at risk. This suit seeks to hold Weee! accountable and to get the drivers a measure of relief for what they have experienced."

A jury trial is requested.

About Sanford Heisler Sharp

Sanford Heisler Sharp is a public interest and civil rights law firm with offices in New York, Washington, DC, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Atlanta, Baltimore, Nashville, and San Diego. The firm focuses on employment discrimination, Title IX, wage and hour, whistleblower and qui tam, criminal/sexual violence, financial services, and Asian American litigation and finance matters. Our lawyers have recovered over $1 billion for our clients through many verdicts and settlements.

In 2022, The National Law Journal named Sanford Heisler Sharp Civil Rights Firm of the Year, and it recognized the firm in 2021 as both the Employment Rights Firm of the Year and the Human Rights Firm of the Year. Law360 recognized the firm as Employment Practice Group of the Year in 2021, 2019, 2018, and 2016. Benchmark Litigation recognized the firm as the Labor & Employment Firm of the Year in 2021 and 2020.

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