Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, WAGE-HOUR—CLASS ACTIONS—N.D. Cal.: Court denies certification of non-union California worker’s putative class wage claims, (Dec 19, 2025)

By Jason Albright, J.D.

“The non-union plaintiff’s claims are not typical of the class, who are union members.”

A California federal district court denied certification of the putative class wage claims of a non-union employee of Delta Star, Inc. who alleged multiple California wage-hour violations, including unlawful rounding of work hours and inaccurate wage statements. The court found that the plaintiff’s claims are not typical of the class, who are union members. In addition, for the union members who constitute the majority of the putative class, LMRA preemption may further bar certification of claims requiring interpretation of labor contracts (Wilson v. Delta Star, Inc., No. 21-cv-07326-LB (N.D. Cal. Dec. 18, 2025)).

Delta Star and its contracts. Union members at Delta Star, according to the court, are covered by a series of four sequential collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) in effect during the proposed class period (signed in 2015, 2018, 2021, and 2024) between Delta Star and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union 1245. And approximately 90 percent of the putative class members hare are, or were, union members subject to the CBAs.

The plaintiff, however, was never a union member.

Detailed wage-hour provisions. The CBAs, in turn, contain detailed provisions governing wages, overtime, tool reimbursement, and a multi-step grievance procedure culminating in final and binding arbitration.

Handbook and rules. And Delta Star maintains a California Employee Handbook stating that union employees should refer to the CBA for “more details on certain policies as these may differ from this employee handbook” and that the California handbook governs the putative class members’ employment unless the CBAs outline a different policy.

Delta Star also maintains General Plant Rules addressing primarily safety and attendance policies and a Salaried Employee Handbook containing policies for hourly employees, including some policies for Delta Star’s California location (DSW).

Schedules and timekeeping. From 2020 through October 2023, the shift schedule was 6:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., 10:30 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., and 6:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. for the weekend shift. In October 2022, the first shift changed to 5:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The meal breaks are 9:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. for the first shift, 6:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. for the second shift, and 2:00 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. for the third shift. Both union and non-union hourly employees work on the same schedules and have the same supervisors, job titles, and scheduled meal and rest breaks. The 2024 CBA outlines the three shifts for hourly employees as: shift one between 5:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., shift two from 12:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., and shift three between 9:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.

Delta Star’s “Employment Practices Handbook (Salaried Employees)” states, “hourly employees must record time when they start and stop work for the day.” Delta Star’s California Handbook states that employees “are expected to be at their desks or workstations at the start of their scheduled shifts, ready to work,” and are “expected to report to work as scheduled, on time, and prepared to start work” and cannot be tardy. An employee who punches in one minute after the scheduled shift time is tardy under Delta Star’s policy.

Punch timeclock. Since at least 2020, Delta Star has maintained a policy that hourly employees must clock in at a paper punch timeclock when they arrive at work and punch out when they leave for the day. After punching in, hourly paid employees grab their tools, put on their personal protective equipment (including protective shoes, glasses, and hats), either communicate with supervisors regarding tasks for the day or look at the book listing daily tasks, and then work at their stations until break. Hourly employees punch in and out at a timeclock for their shifts, but Delta Star uses the handwritten total time hours at the bottom of timecards for payroll and employees’ standard shift schedules.

No off-the-clock work. Delta Star also prohibits any off-the-clock work. Its Employee Practice Handbook instructs Delta Star employees on accurate timekeeping and to discuss payroll discrepancies with their supervisor. Delta Star maintains pay data for all putative class members electronically and has maintained time data for all putative class members since approximately 2021 or 2022.

Meal breaks. The California Employee Handbook states that California employees are covered by the rest period provisions of the Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Orders. The Salaried Employee Handbook addresses Delta Star’s meal policy for DSW, which states that “[n]on-exempt employees must take a mandatory unpaid 30-minute meal period no later than the end of the employee’s fifth hour of work. Employees may not perform any work during this mandatory meal period.... Employees must punch out for their meal periods.” All hourly paid employees who stay on the premises for lunch breaks are subject to Delta Star’s automatic deduction policy. Delta Star uses a bell system that rings at the beginning of a break and one minute before a break ends, and it instructs employees to record their meal breaks on their timecards and to notify a supervisor, HR, or payroll if a meal or rest break is missed. It is Delta Star’s policy to pay premium pay when notified of a missed break.

Bonuses. Since at least 2015, Delta Star has paid its hourly paid manufacturing employees monthly bonuses at DSW based on gross sales calculations for the month. “Gross sales” are based on revenue reported for a given month, as outlined in the CBAs, which is based on the transformers worked on by the manufacturing employees. The bonus is based on predetermined objectives outlined in the CBAs and has been offered throughout the relevant period and never taken away from manufacturing employees. Delta Star did not calculate bonuses as part of the regular rate of pay for overtime or sick pay purposes. And though the plaintiff never became part of the union, he was eligible for and received four such manufacturing bonuses.

Tool reimbursement. Finally, the 2021 and 2024 CBAs include tool reimbursement provisions stating that Delta Star will replace damaged tools required to perform work within an employee’s job classification up to $350 in 2021 and $500 in 2024. If an employee lacks a necessary tool, the employee may request that a supervisor either approve purchase of the tool or order it directly and submit a receipt for reimbursement.

Putative class action and motion to certify. The plaintiff, a non-exempt hourly employee who worked for Delta Star from approximately February 2017 to August 2021, brought his putative class action against Delta Star and moved for class certification under Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(b)(3). He sought to certify nine subclasses of current and former non-exempt employees in California based on: (1) unlawful rounding of work hours to scheduled shift times; (2) automatic thirty-minute deductions for meal periods; (3) failure to provide full, uninterrupted thirty-minute meal breaks before the end of the fifth hour of work; (4) failure to include non-discretionary bonuses in the regular rate for overtime calculations; (5) failure to include non-discretionary bonuses in the regular rate for sick pay calculations; (6) failure to reimburse for necessary hand tools where employees earned less than twice the minimum wage; (7) failure to pay all wages due upon termination; (8) inaccurate wage statements; and (9) unfair competition under Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17200 et seq. (UCL).

His underlying claims were for (1) unpaid overtime, (2) unpaid meal period premiums, (3) unpaid minimum wages, (4) untimely final wages, (5) non-compliant wage statements, (6) unreimbursed business expenses, and (7) unfair competition under the UCL.

Delta Star opposed class certification.

Typicality. Taking up the employee’s motion, the court noted that among the prerequisites of Rule 23(a) certification are that the claims or defenses of the representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class. The plaintiff’s claim faltered on this point.

He argued that that his claims are typical of the class because all Delta Star employees, regardless of union membership, are subject to the same policies and have the same schedules, meal breaks, job titles, supervisors, and timekeeping method, but that was not the end of the matter. “Because the plaintiff was never covered by a CBA,” noted the court, “he can pursue his state claims without first exhausting the CBA’s mandatory grievance and arbitration provisions.”

His claims were thus not typical of those he sought to represent. “[N]inety percent of the class is bound by those mandatory processes,” observed the court. “This creates unique defenses applicable only to union members—including failure to exhaust and LMRA § 301 preemption—that do not apply to the plaintiff.”

Preemption. Finally, the court forewent an assessment of the LMRA preemption issue, noting that it is better addressed on a full briefing. “While preemption may create additional individualized issues or unique defenses for union members, potentially defeating predominance and typicality, the court need not resolve it here given the typicality holding.”

The case is No. 21-cv-07326-LB.

Judge: Beeler, L.

Attorneys: Douglas Han (Justice Law Corp.) for Max Wilson. Raven Burks (Woods Rogers Vandeventer Black) for Delta Star, Inc.

Companies: Delta Star, Inc.

Cases: WageHour UnionsMembers ClassActions MinimumWage Overtime WorkingTime Procedure CaliforniaNews