Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ann Jones granted preliminary approval of a $4,150,000 settlement in a case filed by HSR on behalf of Plaintiffs Maria Aguilar, Francisco Cruz, Jose A. Joya, Andrea Lara, Rafael Leon, Raquel Leon, Guadalupe Martinez, Giliana Perez De Nima, and Susana Zelay, against Flying Food Group Pacific, Inc. (“Flying Food”). Flying Food provides in-flight catering and custom foods for airline clients at the Los Angeles International Airport. Flying Food prepares the food for its LAX airline clients at a large facility located on airport property and delivers these foods, beverages, supplies, and other provisions to its clients at LAX.
The lawsuit alleges, among other allegations, that Flying Food paid employees wages below the living wage rate required by the City of Los Angeles’s Living Wage Ordinance (“Living Wage Ordinance”).
The Living Wage Ordinance requires airport employers to pay covered employees a living wage, explaining that the “inadequate compensation typically paid [at or slightly above the minimum required by federal and state minimum wage laws] fails to provide service employees with resources sufficient to afford life in Los Angeles.”