The people who repair Navy ships in San Diego perform hard, skilled labor
They show up early, put in long hours, and keep some of the most important vessels in the country running. So when a group of those workers came forward saying they weren’t being paid for all the time they put in and were being denied proper breaks, Matern Law Group was proud to stand with them.
Cabrales v. BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair, Inc. was led by two workers – Federico Cabrales and Tychicus Stanislas – who were willing to put their names on a lawsuit on behalf of themselves and over 2,000 coworkers. Speaking up about your own paycheck is hard enough, but doing it for everyone you work alongside requires an extra level of courage.
The workers said BAE wasn’t paying them correctly for the hours they worked – including work performed during required meal and rest breaks, overtime for which they were not compensated, and time spent on work-related tasks the company should have paid employees for. When you’re owed a few minutes here and there, it might not feel like much on a single paycheck. But spread across years and thousands of employees, it adds up to real money that belongs in workers’ pockets.
After years of investigation and litigation – including a site inspection, motions, depositions, fact and expert discovery, and two rounds of mediation – we reached a settlement valued at more than $6.3 million. Around 1,200 workers who took part in the settlement and had not already released their claims against BAE received or will receive a payment. Thus, the workers are finally being fairly compensated for the work they performed.
Cases like this aren’t really about the shortcomings of any one company. They’re about a basic idea: if you do the work, you get paid for the work – all of it. California has some of the strongest wage and hour protections in the country, and sometimes workers have to speak up about their entitlement to such protections in order to be properly compensated for their work. Federico and Tychicus did exactly that, and a lot of their coworkers are better off for it.
If you think you’re not being paid for all of the time you work (unpaid overtime, missed breaks, expenses you’ve covered out of pocket, etc.), you’re not alone, and you have rights. At Matern Law Group, we represent California workers, not the companies that cut their checks. Reach out for a free, confidential conversation. Finding out where you stand won’t cost you anything.
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