Former Executive Chef Files Class-Action California Labor Lawsuit

Ventura, CA Given the rigors and requirements of food preparation for a facility as large as a nursing home, it is little wonder that an executive chef puts in long hours to ensure prepared food is safe and palates are satisfied. And yet one California labor lawsuit claims that an executive chef working in the Golden State was improperly misclassified as management and was therefore denied overtime pay, an affront to California labor law.

The lawsuit names Harvest Management Sun LLC (Harvest), an entity that operates a chain of assisted-living and independent-living facilities across the country under the Holiday Retirement banner. The class action was filed by a California man on behalf of any and all employees of Harvest who may have been denied overtime under California and labor law, as well as similar statutes observed by other states and, federally, the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The plaintiff - who was not named in the report - worked as an executive chef at one of Holiday’s independent-living homes in Pinole. The complaint alleges that the position of executive chef was classified as a management position by the defendant, but that the plaintiff had very few managerial responsibilities. The plaintiff alleges that he typically worked more than 50 hours in any given week, but was not paid overtime in accordance with good practice under California and employment law.

The lawsuit, which also affects the company’s Simi Hills facility in the Simi Valley and The Bonaventure located in Ventura, seeks damages for affronts to California labor employment law going back four years in the state; together with similar affronts to federal law under the Fair Labor Standards Act going back two to three years.

The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified damages, back pay for uncompensated overtime hours, as well as attorney’s fees and costs.

Many a California labor lawsuit has taken an employer to task for misclassifying an employee as exempt from claiming overtime due to having management responsibilities, while having few if any real management duties to perform. While some employers appear to misclassify in error, there are many others who undertake the misclassification in an attempt to save money by not paying an employee overtime for work performed beyond the standard 40-hour workweek or eight-hour day, as mandated under California labor law. Managers, who are correctly classified as exempt, are normally paid a higher salary that takes into account the expectation for working longer hours.

The class-action California labor lawsuit was filed earlier this month in US District Court for the Northern District of California.