Valley Children’s Hospital appears poised to have a settlement in place to pay a small sum to employees in a class action lawsuit that was filed against the hospital for allegedly violating labor law.
A Madera County judge issued a tentative ruling in court on Wednesday that overruled the objections waged by nurses against the settlement.
The backstory: Nurses Brianna Westfall and Gloria Garcia filed a class action lawsuit against Valley Children’s in 2022 over failure to pay employees for overtime. They also accused Valley Children’s of not providing meal and rest breaks.
- Last year, nurse Bonnie Ferreria also filed a class action lawsuit against Valley Children’s to receive all minimum and overtime wages that she was not paid.
- Ferreria claims in the lawsuit that Valley Children’s has historically paid between $6 to $8 per hour for on-call shifts, even though California’s minimum wage has been over $8 for years. She claimed that all of the affected employees are owed nearly $5 million from the hospital.
- However, just 11 days after she filed her lawsuit, Ferreria received a notice of a preliminary settlement in Westfall et al v. Valley Children’s Hospital, which proposed a $400,000 settlement to cover all wage claims any employee makes against the hospital, despite the fact that the Westfall case does not actually examine any on-call claims.
- Ferreria would be left with a $54.58 payout and would be unable to sue for her claims since the settlement in the Westfall case would protect Valley Children’s from other claims. Ferreria said she is owed close to $28,000 from Valley Children’s, over 500 times the proposed settlement amount offered by the hospital.
- Ferreria filed a motion to intervene in the Westfall case but was denied.
The big picture: More than 40 Valley Children’s employees made written objections to the settlement in court, specifically arguing that it is insufficient because it does not explicitly consider on-call hours worked.
- Madera County Judge Michael Jurkovich wrote in his tentative ruling that the on-call claims have the same claims made in the Westfall case, also stating that the general release of all claims, as proposed in the settlement, is not uncommon in class action lawsuits.
- Further, Jurkovich ruled that settlements do not need to cover 100% of damages in order to be fair and reasonable.
- “Compromise is inherent and necessary in the settlement process,” Jurkovich wrote. “Thus, even if ‘the relief afforded by the proposed settlement is substantially narrower than it would be if the suits were to be successfully litigated,’ this is no bar to a class settlement because ‘the public interest may indeed be served by a voluntary settlement in which each side gives ground in the interest of avoiding litigation.’”
What we’re watching: The next hearing in court is scheduled for May 22 to consider final approval of the settlement.
What they’re saying: A spokesperson for Valley Children’s told The Sun that the hospital will accommodate any employee who is one shift and would like to attend the hearing on May 22.
