Dive Brief:
- The Los Angeles City Council has agreed to a payout for the city's sanitation drivers. The members are offering the estimated $26 million payout to put an end to a class action lawsuit against the city.
- Officials in L.A. created rules for waste truck drivers surrounding their breaks. Naps were prohibited and restrictions about where, when and how drivers could have lunch were enforced. The Bureau of Sanitation also prohibited drivers from gathering in large groups and forbid traveling to locations away from their collection routes during lunch breaks.
- The attorney for the drivers said that the workers were basically required to stay on duty but not compensated for nine years of lunch breaks.
Dive Insight:
L.A. officials initially created the rules to ensure that no workers were caught sleeping in their trucks, to quell taxpayers who may be angered at the sight of city employees "sleeping on the job." These rules ended last summer.
City lawyers warned members of the council that they may have to pay $40 million if the lawsuit continued. A Superior Court judge and state appeals court panel were in favor of the drivers in the case. As a result of the payout, each driver will receive an average of $8,000 in retroactive pay.
