A federal judge denied an exterior building products manufacturer’s bid to dismiss a lawsuit alleging the company engaged in wage-and-hour abuses against its hourly-paid or non-exempt employees in Washington.
Cornerstone Building Brands Services Inc. (an affiliated corporate entity of Cornerstone Building Brands, a North Carolina-based manufacturer with offices throughout the United States, and producer of Ply Gem, Simonton, Harvey and other door and window brands), faces a civil lawsuit filed by a former hourly-paid, non-exempt field service coordinator at the company’s Spokane, Washington, facility. Margeaux Hesterly alleges that during her roughly three years with the company, she experienced what she describes as various wage-and-hour violations, including “non-compliant meal and rest breaks, off-the-clock work, unpaid or underpaid overtime, sick leave violations and personnel file violations.”
According to court documents, Hesterly states that while she was often scheduled to work Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., she ended up working “significantly more hours in the evenings, on the weekends and during her legally protected breaks.” She also alleges that she was routinely interrupted during meal breaks and was told to work during breaks at the request of her supervisor.
In all, Hesterly makes the following claims that Cornerstone failed to:
- Provide rest breaks;
- Provide meal breaks;
- Pay minimum wages for all hours worked;
- Pay overtime wages due;
- Accrue and allow use of paid sick leave;
- Pay all wages due at termination;
- Maintain accurate payroll records; and
- Provide personnel file records.
Cornerstone filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on April 16, arguing that Hesterly failed to sufficiently allege that she performed compensable work or that the company knew of or willfully committed the alleged wage-and-hour violations. The company also contended that she had not identified a uniform, class-wide policy supporting her claims and had failed to exhaust administrative remedies related to her personnel file allegations.
In his denial of Cornerstone’s dismissal motion, United States District Judge Thomas O. Rice rejects Cornerstone’s argument that Hesterly had to show her unpaid work was “integral and indispensable” to her job duties. He states that Washington law does not appear to incorporate the federal Portal-to-Portal Act standard, which amended the Fair Labor Standards Act by excluding certain preliminary and postliminary activities from compensable work time under federal law.
Judge Rice also found that Hesterly had sufficiently alleged that Cornerstone knew about the uncompensated time. He further allowed Hesterly’s willfulness claims to proceed, citing allegations that Cornerstone placed work expectations upon her that were impossible to complete within the time allotted, disciplined her when she was unable to meet those expectations or when she attempted to work overtime hours, and required her to work during unpaid meal periods.