Delivery Workers Settle Overtime Suit for $8 Million

The people who deliver Sparkletts and Alhambra bottled water in California settled a class-action overtime lawsuit with their employer Thursday for $8 million, including attorneys’ fees and costs.

The case is one of hundreds alleging California employers are cheating workers out of overtime.

In this case, more than 800 delivery people alleged they were improperly classified as salespeople and wrongly exempted from overtime pay. Under the settlement, more than 700 delivery people will receive 6.6% of their total earnings between April 1996 and April 2000, when the first of two lawsuits was filed, said Dennis Moss, the lawyer who represented the workers.

Under California law, businesses may avoid paying overtime to workers who spend more than 50% of their time selling, Moss said.

Danone Waters of North America Inc., a Pasadena-based firm that owns Sparkletts and Alhambra, issued a statement Thursday, saying, “We believe settling the lawsuit was in the best interest of the company and the employees.”

The company also said that shortly after the first lawsuit was filed, it converted several types of positions to nonexempt status subject to overtime premiums and began paying the deliverers hourly wages. Lisa Girion