Coke Bottlers Settle Suit for Back Overtime
Three Coca-Cola bottling companies agreed Wednesday to pay $20.2 million to 1,100 route salesmen in California to compensate them for back overtime in a settlement that is expected to fuel a spate of similar lawsuits in the state against companies with outside sales forces.
The Coke settlement is the latest in a string of victories in overtime lawsuits filed by white-collar workers, who until now primarily have been managers and administrators.
Under California law, employers must pay time and a half to all employees for any work in excess of eight hours a day.
Employers can get exemptions for workers who spend more than 50% of their time on managerial, administrative or outside sales duties.
The suit against the Coke bottlers was filed in 1999, shortly after the California Supreme Court rejected a lower court’s application of a less stringent federal overtime law to outside sales people.
Under the federal law, salaried workers may be exempt if they are “primarily engaged” in managing, administrating or selling.
The 1999 ruling for the first time applied California’s 50% rule to sales representatives. The Coke case, brought against BCI Bottling Co. of Los Angeles, Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of California and Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. in Atlanta, is one of the first sales exemption suits to be resolved in its wake.
Under the Coke settlement approved Wednesday by a judge in Los Angeles, the average payment per salesman--each of whom earns $35,000 to $40,000 a year--is $11,500. Actual payments will depend on how long each salesman worked for Coke.
Coca Cola Bottling Co. of Los Angeles denied any wrongdoing. A spokesman declined to say whether it had converted its route sales representatives from salaried employees to hourly workers as a result of the suit.
