LOS ANGELES – Thousands of parking lot attendants, cashiers and other employees received a whooping $4.7 million settlement after their class action lawsuit was settled.
About 10,000 employees, some of whom were Filipino, filed a class action lawsuit against their employer AMPC System Parking Company (AMPCO) and its parent corporation, ABM Industries, one of the biggest facility service contractors in the United States.
Filed in 2006, the group of employees claimed that AMPCO, failed to pay compensation for missed meal breaks and rest periods; overtime; minimum wage, and others allegations, according to court documents.
“The settlement was the result of prolonged arms-length negotiations between the parties, made after years of hard-fought litigation, including extensive discovery, multiple motions, a certification battle that went favorably for the employees, and drawn-out mediation and settlement process,” said Sayas, an attorney based in Glendale, who served as co-counsel to the case.
“I’m just happy and the clients are happy,” Sayas told the Asian Journal. “They received some money but also they made a difference in their colleagues’ lives.”
For five years, Atty. Joe Sayas served as co-lead counsel to the case.
The class action suit against the parking giant came about more than five years ago, after an employee had an “off-the-cuff” conversation with Sayas.
The employee (described only as a Hispanic American) had asked Sayas about his knowledge of workers compensation law and rights of the employees.
Then, a Filipino-American parking lot attendant consulted Sayas about his rights as an employee.
The employees allege that AMPCO, which operates about 750 parking facilities in California, did not allow them their mandatory 30-minute break for lunch.
“What we found during the discovery was that this was a widespread problem across the state, parking lots in Century City, San Jose, San Diego, everywhere up and down California,” said Sayas.
He points out one example of an Ethiopian-American cashier at the Grove parking lot.
She suffers from kidney problems. But because of the busyness of the Grove lot, there were times she had to skip going to the restroom, fearing that she could get in trouble if she left her post.
“During discovery, we found cases we’re we’ve seen only one person manning a parking lot. There’s no relief for that guy. He’s working straight the whole day,” said Sayas.
He adds that the most disheartening part of the discovery was that most of the clients (employees) he spoke to, do not even know their rights as an employee nor overtime wages.
In their defense, AMPCO lawyers conceded there were issues in “some parking lots” but minimized the scope of the overall problems.
“They basically said, the problems were only in LA and it’s not true in Bakersfield, San Francisco, San Jose, or San Diego,” said Sayas.
“They also said nobody is prohibiting them from taking a break.”
After years of hard fought, back-and-forth litigation, the suit (which consolidated four related cases against AMPCO and ABM) was finally settled after the judge certified the case as a class action.
Rather than risking the unpredictability of a jury trial, the plaintiff and defense agreed on a $4.7 million settlement decision.
“The most important thing, when dealing with a class action, is that it addresses the present and the future,” he said. “This sends a message to their boardroom to make sure that they are in compliance with the law.”
