FedEx Corp. contested class action claims brought by drivers alleging wage violations in California on Monday, arguing that state labor laws covering “split shifts” did not require it to pay higher-paid employees for an extra hour at minimum wage.  FedEx lawyer Sandra Isom told U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson that employees were only entitled to a split shift premium if their total daily wages were less than the sum of the actual hours worked plus an additional hour.

The litigation centers on claims from five subclasses of FedEx drivers and couriers that the company owes an additional hour's pay at minimum wage for a workday regardless of the amount of regular wages in excess of the minimum wage that FedEx paid them in a workday.  “There is no dispute that employees are entitled to minimum wage, but the regulation was meant to be applied toward the employee who makes $8 an hour, not the employee who makes $20 an hour,” Isom said. “The point of the split shift premium is to establish a floor so that when the $8-an-hour employee has to incur expenses due to a split shift, they can still pay their bills and live their life.”  But if an employee already earns more than the minimum wage plus one hour for that workday, she said, that worker is not entitled to receive any additional split shift premium under a plain reading of the regulation. (click on link to read full story)