Maryland Federal Court Approves $670,000 Settlement in Recycling Facility Wage-Theft Case
Judge Deborah Boardman of the United States District Court in Maryland preliminarily approved the settlement of a class and collective lawsuit alleging that workers at a Prince George’s County recycling facility were misclassified and entitled to overtime payments.
The complaint alleged the employer misclassified workers as independent contractors for several months by hiring them as “temporary employees” and paying them an improper daily rate. It further alleged the employer then illegally deducted wages for alleged meal breaks that were not bona fide. Under federal law, employers may only deduct wages for meal breaks if they are uninterrupted and at least 30 minutes.
The Court approved $470,000 of payments to the class of workers and $200,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs.
Potential claimants should contact Lorena Widman at Murphy Anderson [(202) 223-2620] if they worked as a recycling sorter at WB Waste’s Olive Street facility between February 2021 and February 2024.
Mark Hanna, Joni Jacobs, Ricardo Perez and Nicole Rubin represented the workers.