Trucker Overtime Pay Case

Westberry v. Interstate Distributor Co.

RCW 49.46.130 (the Washington Minimum Wage Act) provides that no employer shall employ any employee for a work week longer than forty hours unless such employee receives compensation for the work he performs in excess of forty hours at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate at which he is employed.

From 2003 through 2007, Westberry was employed by Interstate Distributor as a truck driver and performed an average of between sixty and seventy hours of work per week, for which he was compensated on a per-mile basis. On a per-week basis, his per-mile compensation remained the same subsequent to his performing forty hours of work as it did prior to his performing forty hours of work. He did not receive overtime pay for hours worked in excess of forty hours per week.

Westberry drove in excess of forty hours a week in Washington and in other states as well.

The proposed class is defined as individuals who were harmed as a consequence of Interstate Distributor’s failure to pay overtime wages to those of its employees who worked in excess of forty hours per week.

Plaintiff Larry Westberry, a former long-term employee of Interstate Distributor, claims that the company, which pays its employees by the mile rather than by the hour, violated state law by paying him same amount per mile even when he worked more than forty hours a week. Washington-based employers are required to pay their employees one-and-a-half times their regular rate of pay when they work more than forty hours per week, even if the work is performed out of state. The lawsuit seeks to obtain back pay for all of Interstate Distributor's truck drivers who worked overtime but were not paid time-and-a-half.