Avis Must Face Overtime Class Action Lawsuit from Rental Car Employees

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Avis Budget Car Rental LLC has lost a motion to decertify a class action lawsuit accusing the rental car company of failing to give their employees mandatory breaks, meal periods, and overtime pay. The class action lawsuit is brought by Avis shift managers who claim they were denied overtime pay despite performing duties that aren’t exempt from overtime regulations.

The Avis overtime class action lawsuit was certified in June 2012 on behalf of all current and former Avis car rental employees who worked as shift managers, preferred managers, and other comparable positions with different titles (including but not limited to customer service managers and customer loyalty managers) at any time since Feb. 24, 2008, and who were nonexempt employees.

Plaintiffs in the Avis employee class action lawsuit allege the car rental company misclassified them as exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and “failed to pay them for all hours worked as well as overtime compensation” even though they performed non-exempt duties such as “cleaning cars, moving cars around the parking lot, checking inventory, renting cars, and/or installing child car seats.”

Avis tried to have the overtime class action lawsuit, filed in February 2011, decertified based on the argument that the Avis managers couldn’t prove they were “similarly situated” because “different plaintiffs had very different job duties.”

Avis argued in its motion that the shift managers’ duties and responsibilities differ depending on a variety of factors, including location, location size, rental volume, how many employees were on staff, and geography.  However, U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton stated that these factors were irrelevant to the fact that rest breaks are mandatory by the Department of Labor, and that the company failed to provide them.

This Avis class action lawsuit includes all the employees who have worked for Avis as shift managers since February 2008.  The shift managers allege that they were the lowest tier level in the company’s management hierarchy, but were forced to supervise employees in several groups.  Despite this, Avis had classified them as exempt from overtime regulations even though they had little involvement in hiring or firing employees, as well as did not supervise other employees’ activities.

The Avis Overtime Class Action Lawsuit is Frederick Ruffin Jr. et al. v. Avis Budget Car Rental LLC, et al., Case No. 2:11-cv-01069, in the United States District Court of New Jersey.

Overview of Car Rental Employment Violations

Avis is not the only car rental company that is facing litigation woes; California employees are suing car rental companies for violating labor laws by failing to pay overtime, failing to provide rest and meal breaks, forcing employees to work off the clock, and committing other wage and hour violations.  The FLSA requires that all nonexempt (hourly) employees to be compensated at a rate of 1.5 times their regular base salary for any hours worked over 40 hours in a workweek.   Employers are also required to keep accurate pay records for their employees dating back at least three years, and prohibit off-the-clock working.

Over the past five years, multiple unpaid overtime class action lawsuits have been filed against rental car companies across the nation, resulting in several multi-million dollar class action settlements for employees.  The allegations which arose from these lawsuits included the following violations that employees experienced at the hands of their employers:

• Late meal periods
• Missed meal periods
• No compensation for missed meal periods
• Missed rest breaks
• Off-the-clock work
• Unpaid overtime
• Unpaid vacation time
• Other wage and hour violations

If you worked for a California rental car company as a nonexempt (hourly) employee within the past 5 years and suffered a wage and hour violation, you can participate in a FREE class action lawsuit investigation and pursue compensation. See if you qualify now by submitting your information for a free and confidential claim review at our Rental Car Employee Wage & Hour Class Action Lawsuit Investigation