Zillow Group will pay as much as $6 million to settle a class action lawsuit that accused the company of violating federal labor laws, the online real estate giant announced Monday.
Zillow announced the settlement via a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In the SEC filing, Zillow said that the lawsuit, filed in United Stated District Court for the Central District of California, accused the company of allegedly failing to provide meal and rest breaks, failing to pay overtime, and failing to keep accurate records of employees' hours worked for “certain inside sales consultants.”
The lawsuit claimed that Zillow’s practices violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and California labor laws.
Zillow said that it originally agreed to the settlement in May, but said that the settlement was finalized Monday after the completion of a separate review of its labor practices conducted by the Department of Labor.
The Department of Labor review covered Zillow’s compliance with “certain wage and hour laws” for Zillow’s inside sales consultants employed in its California and Washington offices from 2013 to 2015.
Zillow said Monday that it entered into a separate settlement agreement with DOL regarding that review, which then allowed the class action settlement to proceed.
Under the terms of the settlement agreement with the Department of Labor, Zillow agreed that it will make the settlement payments associated with the class action lawsuit and “establish and maintain certain procedures to promote future compliance” with the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Zillow noted that the DOL settlement does not require the company to make any additional payments beyond what is stipulated in the class action settlement.
Zillow also noted that it did not admit liability in either the DOL settlement or the class action settlement.
“We cooperated fully with the U.S. Department of Labor’s review of Zillow’s wage and hour policies,” a Zillow spokesperson said in a statement provided to HousingWire.
“The DOL determined we already fulfilled our obligations to certain current and former sales employees through our settlement of the Freeman class action litigation in May 2016, and that we are not required to make any additional payments,” the Zillow spokesperson continued.
“By settling this matter, we are not admitting liability,” the spokesperson concluded. “Our people are our greatest asset, and we work hard to create an environment that is inclusive, rewarding, and complies with the law.”
