Avis, Budget Must Face Unpaid Overtime Class Action Lawsuit

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A federal judge has allowed more than 100 additional Avis and Budget car rental employees to join a class action lawsuit accusing Avis Budget Car Rental LLC  and Budget Rent A Car System Inc. of stiffing them out of overtime pay.

The Budget/Avis overtime class action lawsuit was previously granted conditional certification in 2011. On March 27, U.S. District Judge Mary S. Scriven granted second-stage certification after denying the car rental companies’ motion to dismiss.

The Avis and Budget employees are all current and former shift managers who worked at 82 Avis/Budget airport locations since October 17, 2008.  The overtime class action lawsuit alleges that while they were paid a salary for their work, they did not actually complete any of the supervisory duties that would exempt them from time-and-a-half pay for each week where they worked more than 40 hours pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act.

While the Budget and Avis rental car employees were supposedly managers, the judge decided that less than 10 percent of their duties were those that would make an employee exempt, including the authority to direct other workers’ duties as well as hiring, firing and training.

Avis and Budge had argued that there would need to be an individualized inquiry of each employee’s duties, obviating the need for a wage and hour class action lawsuit.

Judge Scriven was unconvinced. The majority of the duties in the job description would not exempt the staff from overtime, according to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Further, the court cited an inconsistency since the company’s “own internal policy and practice considered the shift managers similarly situated for the purposes of” the FLSA exemption, and Avis recognized another court’s ruling that it is “disingenuous” for a company to exempt an entire class of employees that could result in unpaid overtime, while alleging that “plaintiffs cannot proceed collectively to challenge the exemption.”

Also, in objecting to the Budget/Avis overtime class action lawsuit, the rental car companies did not dispute many of the duties of the shift managers, including washing and moving the vehicles as well as renting them out to consumers, duties similar to those of a cashier in a retail environment.

The Avis/Budget Overtime Class Action Lawsuit is Bernar Espanol v. Avis Budget Car Rental LLC, et al., Case No. 10-cv-00944, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida.

Join a Free Budget/Avis Overtime Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you worked for Avis, Budget or another car rental company in California and suffered wage and hour violations such as unpaid overtime, unpaid vacation time, missed breaks, and other violations, you may be eligible to join a free class action lawsuit investigation. Submit your information now to see if you qualify to pursue compensation at our Rental Car Employee Wage & Hour Class Action Lawsuit Investigation .