Les Schwab employees install tires in Bend in June 2016. (Jarod Opperman/Bulletin file photo)

A suit filed in Multnomah County court alleges Les Schwab Tire Centers of Portland Inc. and the company warehouse arm owe current and former employees unpaid wages resulting from shortened lunch breaks.

The suit, filed on behalf of Michael Palmateer, seeks class-action status. The suit seeks up to $5 million for plaintiffs who were not paid for the time worked during 30-minute lunch breaks or overtime that resulted due to work performed during lunch breaks in a 40-hour week.

“Defendants Les Schwab Tire Centers of Portland Inc. and Les Schwab Warehouse Center Inc. routinely fail to provide the full 30-minute meal periods required by Oregon law,” according to the lawsuit.

Palmateer worked six years for Les Schwab Tire Centers and when he left the company’s employ was not paid for the accumulated time worked during lunch breaks less than 30 minutes, according to the suit.

Perkins Coie LLP, a Portland law firm representing the company, in a response to Palmateer’s suit filed Friday, denied the allegations involving shorted lunch breaks.

Palmateer’s attorney Jennifer Palmquist, of Portland, said she approached Les Schwab company officials in 2016 about resolving Palmateer’s claim before filing suit. The effort failed, but, she said, the company in February installed software at her suggestion that blocks employees from checking back into work before the 30-minute break period has expired.

“They installed it in all of their Oregon stores and I felt good about that,” Palmquist said Friday. “It’s important for (employees) to have their break. It’s a tough, physical job.”

She said she interviewed hundreds of Schwab employees over the course of several years and relied on the company’s records to back up the claim that employees clocked back into work after less than 30 minutes. The suit alleges the practice was pervasive throughout the company, not just the Portland stores.

A representative of Les Schwab Tire Centers in Bend could not be reached for comment.

Palmquist’s firm, Northwest Lawfirm, sued Les Schwab on behalf of three defendants making similar claims of unpaid work in Multnomah County in 2008, a case the plaintiffs won at trial in February 2012 and which Les Schwab settled in September 2013.

A case filed in November 2013 on behalf of assistant managers at Schwab in U.S. District Court in Seattle was dropped in March 2015. The federal judge in that case denied a request by the plaintiff’s attorneys Steve Berman and Jeniphr A.E Breckenridge of Seattle to certify a class.

— Reporter: 541-617-7815, 
jditzler@bendbulletin.com