7-Eleven Defeats Franchisees’ Class Status Bid in Wage Lawsuit

7-Eleven franchisees lost their bid to certify a class on claims that they were misclassified as independent contractors instead of employees under California law, after a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled they failed to show common issues would predominate in the case under either of the state’s classification tests.

The franchisees alleged unpaid business expense reimbursements under California’s Wage Order 7 and Labor Code, but whether they’re entitled to the funds depends on whether 7-Eleven properly treated them as contractors. The parties disagreed over which classification test applied—the three-part ABC test adopted in 2018’s Dynamex Operations West v. Superior ...