Pharmacists allege CVS rigged training pay

A group of California pharmacists has sued CVS Health, accusing the retail giant of unfair business practices and failing to properly pay for time spent completing company-mandated training.

The lawsuit was filed in July in Los Angeles Superior Court and seeks class certification. The complaint alleges CVS paid pharmacists for the amount of time it estimated was needed to complete training, not the actual time logged.

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“Plaintiff and class members would not receive the full compensation that they were due, whether at their regular rate of pay or their overtime rate of pay, as applicable, for the actual time that they spent completing this mandatory training modules,” according to the complaint.

Gary Serby, CVS’ director of corporate communications, issued the following statement to Drug Topics: “CVS Health is committed to ensuring that its employees are compensated appropriately for all of the hours they work, and we intend to vigorously defend against the suit’s allegations.”

The lawsuit was filed by pharmacist Sevag Chalian. In it, Chalian alleges CVS failed to keep proper timekeeping records and urges the court to force the chain to pay additional monies for not promptly paying employees for training time.

Last year, CVS paid $7.4 million to settle three separate lawsuits from California pharmacists who alleged they were denied overtime pay for routinely working six consecutive days. The average pharmacist was scheduled to receive $2,846 from the settlement. One third of the settlement amount, $2.49 million, went toward legal fees.

Throughout the country, the major pharmacy chains have faced similar lawsuits. In January 2015, a Philadelphia-area pharmacist filed a federal class action that alleged CVS owed more than 1,000 pharmacists unpaid overtime wages.

In that case, pharmacist Junius Baugh alleges CVS Pharmacy violated state and federal labor laws by employing him more than 40 hours per week but not compensating him at overtime rates for the additional hours.

See also: Consultations by CVS pharmacists reduced hospital readmissions