Class Action Complaint Filed Against Sansum Clinic
A Santa Barbara-based law firm has filed a wage and hour class action lawsuit against Sansum Clinic.
Plaintiff attorney Bruce Anticouni with Anticouni & Associates filed the lawsuit a week ago, and he claims, on behalf of about 500 former and present Sansum employees. The suit alleges that Sansum did not pay overtime, required employees to work off the clock, and required employees to work while on their scheduled lunch breaks. All which violate the California Labor Code.
Jill Fonte, Sansum Clinic’s Director of Marketing, points out that the current complaint, filed five days ago on November 25th, only involves one former employee, identified in court records as Diane Pizzi, who worked as a medical service coordinator.
Anticouni told NewsChannel 3 that the majority of the employees impacted held clerical positions, manning desks and making patient appointments.
“Sansum is a world-class organization, great doctors,” said Anticouni. “These are the actions of some supervisors who, before they submit the payroll, they eliminate or decrease the amount of overtime compensation.”
The lawsuit also alleges that Sansum engaged in practices that sought to undermine employees and included falsifying time cards to reflect that a timely meal break was taken, require employees to log off computers so as to not reflect overtime hours worked, and that the company purposely failed to keep accurate time records and give accurate wage records to employees.
According to the complaint, which you can read in its entirety below, damages are estimated to be about $4.5 million dollars, and the law firm is seeking”substantial compensation” for employees over a four-year period.
“Even small individual wage violations can create millions of dollars of liability when hundreds of employees have experienced wage theft over a four-year period,” said Anticouni.
Fonte responded Monday afternoon to NewsChannel 3’s request for comment: “At this point, any comment would be premature. We will respond appropriately after reviewing the allegations. I can assure you that we do take paying overtime and appropriate wages very seriously.”
