Cleveland v. Groceryworks.com, LLC

200 F. Supp. 3d 924, 101 Fed. R. Serv. 61, 2016 WL 4140504, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103672
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedAugust 4, 2016
DocketCase No. 14-cv-00231-JCS
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 200 F. Supp. 3d 924 (Cleveland v. Groceryworks.com, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cleveland v. Groceryworks.com, LLC, 200 F. Supp. 3d 924, 101 Fed. R. Serv. 61, 2016 WL 4140504, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103672 (N.D. Cal. 2016).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART DEFENDANT’S MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT

JOSEPH C. SPERO, Chief Magistrate Judge

I. INTRODUCTION

This case is before the Court on a motion for partial summary judgment by Defendant Groceryworks.com, LLC d/b/a Safeway.com and Vons.com (“Grocery-works”) as to claims by Plaintiff Darren Cleveland that Groceryworks violated the California Labor Code and the California Unfair Competition Law (the “UCL”), and [930]*930his request for punitive damages under both statutes. Originally brought in state court as a putative class action on December 17, 2013, the case was the removed to federal court on January 15, 2014. For the reasons discussed below, Groceryworks’s Motion is DENIED as to Claims 2 (a claim for failure to provide meal breaks) and 6 (a claim under the UCL) and GRANTED as to all others at issue. Cleveland may also proceed on Claims 7 and 8, which are not at issue in the present Motion.1

II. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

Groceryworks is an online shopping and delivery service. Customers place their grocery orders online, Safeway and Vons grocery store employees collect and package the groceries, and Groceryworks’s drivers deliver the groceries to customers. Henry Decl. (dkt. 79) ¶ 2. Groceryworks hired Cleveland as a part time driver on April 8, 2008, with a base salary of $14.00 per hour. Id. at ¶ 3. Cleveland requested a promotion to full time status in September 2013, which was granted on October 20, 2013 based on Groceryworks’s business needs, and was paid at the increased rate of $17.67 per hour. Id. at ¶ 5.

During the course of his employment at Groceryworks, Cleveland worked at several stores, but primarily worked within the NorCal 3 operations area. Ilg Decl. (dkt. 85) Ex. A (Cleveland Dep.) 13:22-15:15. Within NorCal 3, he spent the majority of his time working out of Safeway store 2708 in Alameda, California. Id. When Cleveland first joined Groceryworks, Yvette Gutierrez was the operations manager overseeing NorCal 3. Id. at 22:01-04. She was succeeded by Tonya Webster, who became NorCal 3 operations manager approximately one year after Cleveland joined the company, in August 2009. Id. at 21:22-22:15. The operations manager position is responsible for overseeing delivery goals, budgets, hiring, firing, training, performance management, and analyzing store delivery metrics, including sales. Barnes Decl. (dkt. 81) ¶ 2. While Cleveland was employed at Groceryworks, the operations manager was Cleveland’s supervisor. Cleveland Dep. 21:22-22:15.

Cleveland was terminated on December 5, 2013, purportedly because Groceryworks determined that he used profanity with a manager regarding Groceryworks’s human resources website, and that he was dishonest during its investigation of the profane email, which Cleveland maintains that he did not write. Henry Decl. ¶ 6; Ilg Decl. Ex. A (Henry Dep.) 33:04-06; Cleveland Dep. 158:15-159:06, 259:07-15. Cleveland believes that his termination was in fact due to Groceryworks’s desire to withhold full time employment benefits from him once he expressed his desire to become a full time employee. Id. at 161:24-165:03, 259:22-25.

1. Groceryworks Scheduling

Groceryworks drivers are assigned to either, a morning shift, an afternoon shift, or both, by their operations manager. Cleveland Dep. 22:24-23:04. Morning shifts generally run from 10:00 A.M. until 3:00 P.M. Id. at 26:05-11, 28:02-04. Afternoon shifts generally run from 4:00 P.M. until 9:00 P.M. Id. at 28:05-09. There is an hour gap between the end of the morning shift and the beginning of the afternoon shift, in which drivers are to return to the store, eat their lunch, and prepare for the upcoming shift if they have one. Id. at 37:17-37:24, 38:10-38:21; Barnes Decl. ¶ 12.

Groceryworks uses Descartes Route Planner (“Descartes”) software to plan de[931]*931livery routes. Barnes Decl. ¶ 8. Based on customers’ order details and addresses, Descartes generates a daily “driver route report” which specifies the time the driver should depart from the store in order to timely fulfill the orders.2 Id. Suggested departure times are communicated to the driver before the start of their shifts so that they know what time to arrive at the store to begin their shift. Id. Upon arrival at the store, drivers receive a “delivery manifest,” generated by Descartes, that details the most efficient delivery order based on customer addresses. Id. at ¶ 9; Cleveland Dep. 47:12-18. Delivery manifests changed on a daily basis because customer orders varied from day to day. Cleveland Dep. 31:16-25.

Cleveland’s operations manager, Tonya Webster, used both automated and manual timekeeping systems to monitor drivers’ compliance with Groceryworks’s meal, rest, and timekeeping policies. Henry Decl. ¶ 16. Manual and automated time entries are recorded into Groceryworks’s electronic timekeeping system called “Oasis.” Id. Drivers work in the field without supervision, but as a general practice, are expected to return to their assigned store at the end of the morning shift, clock out of Oasis, take lunch, then clock back in on Oasis to begin their afternoon shift if they are scheduled for one. Id. at ¶ 17. If drivers are not able to return to the store for lunch, for reasons such as delays in the projected delivery schedule, drivers are told to take an off-duty “on-the-road” lunch. Id. at ¶ 18. Drivers who take on-the-road lunches are required to call either their assigned operations manager or the operations manager .in charge from the road to report the time the lunch break started and ended. Id.; Cleveland Dep. 135:20-136:04. These times are manually recorded by the operations manager into either a “Daily Tracker Report” or an “Automated Payroll Entry,” which are then entered into Oasis by the operations manager prior to the close of thé payroll period. Henry Decl. ¶ 18. During Cleveland’s employment, Groceryworks’s Payroll Department issued “Driver Punch Reports,” which reflected each driver’s time punches as well as whether these entries had already been manually modified ‘in Oasis by their operations manager. Id. at ¶ 20.

Cleveland received multiple performance evaluations during his employment, based on several factors. Henry Decl. ¶ 4. One such factor was Cleveland’s “drops per hour” (“DPH”) quota. Cleveland Dep. 110:11-111:08; Henry Decl. ¶ 4 & Ex. A at D000056-59. Drivers were expected to make two DPH. Cleveland Dep. 110:19-25; Henry Decl. ¶ 4 & Ex. A at D000057. Cleveland testified that he received bad reviews for failing to make his DPH quota, which he attributes to delays beyond his control not taken into account by Grocery-works in calculating drivers’ DPH.3 Cleve[932]*932land Dep. 120:21-23, 146:18-147:03. The two reviews criticizing Cleveland’s DPH were authored by his first operations manager, Yvette Gutierrez.4 Henry Decl. ¶ 4 & Ex. A at D000056-59. Groceryworks did not use DPH as a metric to evaluate Cleveland’s performance in any review after Tonya Webster became NorCal 3 operations manager in August 2009. Henry Decl. ¶ 4.

2. Groceryworks’s Wage and Hour Policies

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200 F. Supp. 3d 924, 101 Fed. R. Serv. 61, 2016 WL 4140504, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103672, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cleveland-v-groceryworkscom-llc-cand-2016.