Bad Medicine: California Pharmacists Lose Bid For Class Certification

Hourly pharmacists for CVS in California were forced to swallow a bitter pill late last year when Judge S. James Otero of the Central District or California denied their motion for class certification on claims for unpaid off-the-clock and overtime work.

 

The plaintiffs alleged that they were forced to work additional hours without pay in order to serve the pharmacy’s customers.  They argued that they could establish their claims on a class-wide basis by relying on CVS’s “Rx Connect” software system, which allows pharmacy employees to perform various daily tasks such as obtaining prescription information, verifying insurance data, and printing labels.  To access the system, employees must enter a three-letter credential that is obtained by inputting employee ID and password information each day.  The plaintiffs claimed they could establish liability for off-the-clock (and overtime) work by cross-referencing time records with the prescription records tracked in the Rx Connect database.

 

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