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Law360 (December 15, 2020, 4:23 PM EST) -- A technician at a Sanofi Pasteur Inc. plant in northeastern Pennsylvania has launched a class action in state court alleging that her employer failed to make good on pledges to give workers a 15% bump to their wages as hazard pay for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Courtland Davis said in a complaint filed in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas on Friday that Sanofi and Yoh Services LLC, a staffing firm that provides technicians for the plant, had cost her some $5,000 in wages by reneging on an April promise of hazard pay for their continued work during the public health emergency.
"[Davis] and other technicians relied on defendants' hazard pay promise by consistently working throughout the pandemic, and defendants derived a significant financial benefit from such work," the complaint said.
In the end, however, Davis said that Yoh reneged on the promise of hazard pay and instead emailed workers at the beginning on November saying they would receive three additional days of paid time off.
Peter Winebrake, an attorney with Winebrake & Santillo LLC representing Davis, said that it was vital to protect workers who had to continue to report for duty during the ongoing global pandemic, and to ensure employers were living up to their obligations.
"Millions of employees hold jobs that cannot be performed from home," he told Law360. "We need to ensure that these deserving employees get the full benefit of our wage laws."
Davis said in her complaint that a project manager at the plant emailed her and more than 60 other technicians at the beginning of April promising them a 15% increase in their pay for the duration of the coronavirus outbreak.
Despite persistent questions and complaints from Davis and others in the following weeks and months, the suit said that Sanofi and Yoh "repeatedly failed" to make good on their promised pay raise.
Davis said she personally complained on seven separate occasions about not receiving any additional pay as promised in the manager's email.
Instead, Davis said in her complaint that the manager forwarded the workers a second email from a Yoh vice president thanking them for their continued work and "rewarding" them with three additional days of paid time off.
In a subsequent email, the complaint said the plant manager confirmed that the additional time off was being given in lieu of the promised hazard pay.
The complaint accuses Yoh and Sanofi of breaching their contract with the workers and violating the Pennsylvania Wage Collection and Payment Law.
Representatives for the parties did not immediately return messages seeking comment Tuesday.
Davis is represented by Peter Winebrake of Winebrake & Santillo LLC.
Counsel information for Yoh and Sanofi was not immediately available.
The case is Courtland Davis v. Yoh Services LLC et al., case number 201200545, before the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania.
--Editing by Andrew Cohen.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
