San Francisco bus and train operators may pursue unpaid overtime claims as a class action following a federal judge’s order to certify a class against the city Metropolitan Transportation Agency.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers granted the class certification request on Friday covering roughly 2,000 drivers employed by the agency after July 2009.
The drivers accused the city of failing to pay drivers for all the hours worked and failing to pay minimum wage for all the hours worked.
The allegations include alleged failure to pay drivers for certain start and end travel time, meeting time, late runs and turn-in time.
The city contends that it maintains a procedure for operators to submit time cards for unscheduled overtime, but the drivers counter that the city’s method of scheduling runs systematically underestimates run times and thus virtually guarantees operators work overtime, Rogers wrote.
The city contends that whether the city “knew or should have known that individual operators were working off-the-clock” as drivers argue, will vary so widely that it can only be resolved on an individual basis and thus not by class action lawsuit.
Rogers said the arguments were “unavailing.”
She ordered the city to produce the names of all drivers who may be part of the class.
Case: Stitt v. San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, No. 12-cv-3704YGR
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