U-Haul Weighs Appeal of Overtime Ruling

U-Haul International Inc. is considering appealing a Los Angeles court decision that 480 current and former employees were improperly classified as managers and denied overtime wages, said Bill Kannow, an attorney representing the Phoenix-based company. In a hearing set for April, the plaintiffs will argue they are owed more than $10 million in overtime pay, said Matthew A. Kaufman, an attorney representing the current and former employees participating in the class-action lawsuit. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge J. Stephen Czuleger ruled this week that U-Haul had failed to show that the employees spent more than 50% of their time engaged in management duties, Kaufman said. Kannow said the judge agreed that U-Haul had met the four other criteria entitling the company to exempt the workers from overtime, including paying them at least double the minimum wage. The case is one of the first of several brought under California’s overtime law.