KAREN ROBERTS, , ET AL. VS LONG BEACH COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT

On April 04, 2022, Karen Roberts and Seija Rohkea, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated (“Plaintiffs”), represented by Goldsmith Eileen, filed a labor lawsuit against Long Beach Community College District (“District” or “Defendant”), seeking declaratory and injunctive relief with damages, pre-judgment interest and costs, for the Defendant’s alleged unlawful pay policies and/or practices which denied Plaintiffs and Class Members the minimum wages legally owed to them for work performed during the Class Period. This case was filed in the Spring Street Courthouse in Los Angeles County Superior Court. 

In the complaint, the Plaintiffs have alleged that, “Part-time hourly instructional faculty members employed by the District are compensated based on their classroom hours worked, even though the District knows that these faculty members necessarily spend substantial additional time working outside the classroom in connection with teaching their assigned classes, on such activities as preparing for lectures, grading student work, and communicating with students.”

The Plaintiffs also alleged that, “Although this outside-the-classroom work is essential to teaching their classes effectively, and the District knows and indeed expects part-time faculty members to perform this additional work, part-time hourly instructional faculty members are not paid for their out-of-classroom time. As a result, part-time hourly instructional faculty members earn so little that it is virtually impossible for them to earn a living through their community college teaching.”

The Plaintiffs have further alleged that, “By failing to compensate part-time hourly instructional faculty members at all for their non-classroom working time, the District is violating California minimum wage law. This action seeks to recover unpaid minimum wages, retirement contributions owed on those wages, interest, and liquidated damages on behalf of a class of part-time instructional faculty members employed by the District.”

The Plaintiffs even further alleged that, “Plaintiffs also seek a declaratory judgment and injunctive relief to require the District to compensate part-time hourly instructional faculty members at no less than the minimum wage for each hour worked, including for the outside-the-classroom time that is required to teach their classes effectively.”

The Plaintiffs have listed two claims for relief. The first claim alleged is for the failure to pay minimum wages - Labor Code §§1194, 1194.2, 1197, 1197.1, 1199, and IWC Wage Order No. 4-2001, and the second claim alleged is for declaratory judgment - Cal. C.C.P §1060 et seq.

In their prayer for relief, the Plaintiffs have requested that the Court certify this action as a class action and award all wages due along with liquidated damages, pre-judgment interest, statutory and civil penalties, costs of suit, expenses, and reasonable attorneys’ fees. The Plaintiffs have further requested the Court for a permanent injunction requiring the District to adopt a compensation arrangement that compensates Class Members for all hours worked at no less than the minimum wage; a judicial declaration that the existing compensation structure fails to compensate part-time instructional faculty at no less than the minimum wage for all hours worked, including outside-of-classroom hours; and that the District must compensate part-time instructional faculty at no less than minimum wage for all such hours.

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