A former Nielsen Co. employee has settled “in principle” her lawsuit against the global marketing research and television ratings firm, in which she alleged she and other current and former workers are owed back compensation, much of it for missed meal and breaks as well as overtime.
Armida Marquez brought the proposed class-action suit in Los Angeles Superior Court in March 2023, alleging multiple violations of the state Labor Code. Marquez asked for a court finding that the company violated the Labor Code provisions and that back wages be paid with interest.
On Thursday, Marquez’s lawyers filed court papers with Judge Kenneth Freeman notifying him of the tentative accord which, subject to court approval, will “resolve the … action in its entirety” in about 120 days when the parties complete the appropriate paperwork.
No terms were divulged.
In their previous court papers, Nielsen attorneys maintained that all employees were “properly and fully compensated for all work performed” and that Marquez’s suit should be dismissed.
According to Marquez’s suit, Nielsen “had the financial ability to pay such compensation, but willfully, knowingly and intentionally failed to do so in order to increase (its) profits.”
The proposed class would have consisted of all Nielsen past and present hourly, non-exempt employees for the prior four years leading to the filing of the suit.
Marquez worked for Nielsen from June 2018 through March 2022 and her duties included recruiting, signing and providing services to households of people who allow their television and radio viewing listening to be monitored so that Nielsen can use the data to compile ratings, according to the suit.
Marquez and similar employees often took calls at all times from the company as well as the monitored households on a large range of issues, the suit stated. However, the employees were frequently asked to work outside their work hours without compensation, were not paid complete monies due for overtime and missed meal and rest breaks and also did not always get reimbursed for out-of-pocket business expenses, the suit alleged.
“(Nielsen) also implemented policies that prohibited (Marquez) and the class members from accurately recording the actual time worked, resulting in a failure to pay plaintiff and the other (proposed) class members all wages owed,” the suit alleged.
Marquez further contended that Nielsen management knew or should have known that they were required to timely pay all wages owed to her and the other proposed class members at the correct rate of pay.