The nationwide auto glass repair company, Safelite, has surely seen better days: not only is the company trying to weather a media storm regarding its pricing model at the moment, but it is also facing the threat of a fresh class action suit being brought against it by one of its old employees. This is the second suit of its kind against the company in the past two years, with the preceding case being in 2010.
The 2010 suit was filed by yet another former technician, Joseph Perez, who alleged that the auto glass repair giant had failed to provide the overtime wages due to him and a group of other associates who also worked for the company. Another allegation made by Perez was that the company had not been providing the proper rest periods considered obligatory for employers and that the company had not been reimbursing employees for tools and miscellaneous expenses related to work from which the company benefited. All three claims are echoed in the new suit, which was filed on the 14th of this month by Demetriot Lewis, another former employee of the company.
Lewis, like Perez, is from a California branch of the auto glass repair company, and is alleging in his suit that Safelite has failed to pay him the overtime hours he is due, besides not being given the chance to take the requisite 30-minute meal period by his superiors. Another statement in the suit is that Lewis was required by the company to purchase a GPS unit—presumably for mobile services where the auto glass repair is brought the location of the consumer’s choosing—but the company also did not reimburse him for said purchase. Again, this is remarkably similar to the allegations made by Perez in the earlier suit.
Where the difference lies between the two, however, is that Perez’s suit was denied class certification by the local district court. Still, that earlier suit is still going to come to a trial, with a hearing scheduled for the middle of 2012. Lewis’s suit, on the other hand, is still going through the bureaucratic machine, so it is uncertain as yet what its fate shall be.
The Lewis suit against the auto glass repair company is supposedly going to be made on behalf of at least 3 distinct classes. As stated before, Lewis is a former employee of the company, his employment having been terminated on the first month of the last year (2010), so that is yet another thing he and Perez have in common. For both cases, the auto glass services company has refused to provide comments to members of the press, saying that it would interfere with the pending litigation.
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