A group of 11 employees have filed a class action lawsuit against Nestle Dreyer’s Ice Cream Company, claiming it failed to pay sales representatives overtime, withheld wages and provided inaccurate wage statements.

The employees allege in the wage and labor class action lawsuit that Dreyer’s misclassifies employees who regularly perform merchandising and non-sales duties for the majority of their workday, including employees classified as Route Salesperson, Retail Representative, and Pre-Sales Agent, as exempt from overtime. They claim they regularly work more than 8 hours a day and more than 40 hours a week completing their assigned routes, without overtime compensation.

The problem, they say, is that Dreyer’s misclassifies these employees as salespeople, despite the fact that they “regularly spend very little, and exceedingly less than 50 percent of their workday, selling product," and instead “customarily and regularly spend well over 50 percent of their work time stocking, arranging, transporting and counting product – non-sales work,” according to the class action lawsuit.

The employees further allege in the wage and labor class action lawsuit that Dreyer’s requires them to record that they worked 8 hours each workday and 40 hours each workweek, even when they actually worked more.

“On occasions when Plaintiffs and putative Class Members have recorded overtime hours worked, Defendants’ supervisors have altered their time sheets to reflect that they did not work any overtime hours. Defendant’s supervisors have told Plaintiffs that they are exempted from overtime and, therefore, that they are not allowed to record it,” the class action lawsuit alleges.

As a result, Dreyer’s has failed and continues to fail to maintain accurate records of the hours worked by its employees.

The Dreyer’s overtime class action lawsuit is brought on behalf of all current and former Dreyer's employees in the State of California who regularly performed merchandising and non-sales duties for the majority of their workday, including employees classified as Route Salesperson, Retail Representative, and Pre-Sales Agent, and who were exempt from overtime at any time in the past four years.

The complaint is seeking unpaid overtime wages, unpaid straight wages, and penalties for violating state wage and labor laws.

A copy of the Dreyer’s Sales Rep Overtime Class Action Lawsuit can be read here.

The case is Anthony Sciaroni, et al. v. Nestle Dreyer’s Ice Cream Company dba Nestle DSD Company, Case No. 12635122, Superior Court of the State of California, County of Alameda.