Fighting For The Elderly, Vulnerable and Injured.

Largest California Class Action Settlement

On Behalf of | Jun 11, 2008 | News, Videos

The class-action suit settlement representing California UPS workers that led the Consumer Attorneys of California to name Wendy York a Finalist for 2007 Consumer Attorney of the Year Award.

Transcript

INTERVIEW ABOUT THE UPS WAGE AND HOUR CLASS ACTION SETTLEMENT OF $87 MILLION DOLLARS

INTERVIEWOR: For years, shipping giant UPS had a dark secret. One that Wendy York and co-counsel exposed to the world.

WENDY YORK: We were fighting for the workers, the drivers who were being taken advantage of by UPS the tightest ship in the shipping business. They were encouraged not to go with their lunch breaks or meal periods and UPS was actually stealing time from them through a computerized unlawful deduction from their paystubs everyday.

CO-COUNSEL: Requiring them to do almost an impossible amount of deliveries in a day and then automatically deducting an hour or a half hour for lunch.

INTERVIEWOR: Co-counsel and York took on UPS on behalf of 23,000 workers in a daunting fight.

WENDY YORK: They hired what I call “tall building lawyers” who engaged in scorched earth litigation for three and a half years.

INTERVIEWOR: With trial looming, UPS settled the case for $87 million dollars, the largest wage and hour case in California history.

WENDY YORK: It was a message, a statement to UPS that “UPS you can’t treat your drivers like this anymore. You cannot profit at the expense of your drivers.”

INTERVIEWOR: And the team made sure any unclaimed money in the settlement went to charity.

CO-COUNSEL: Roughly $1.4 million dollars went to the Northern California Food Bank and $1.4 million dollars went to the Southern California Food Bank.

WENDY YORK: I will be shopping or I will be out and about and I will run into a UPS driver and I will ask them you know wherever I am in California – Are you taking your lunches – are you taking your breaks? And they will look at me and they will say, “ahhh you are my lawyer – thank you.”

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