A federal judge has ruled that a class-action unpaid wages case against seafood processor UniSea should go to trial.
Redmond, Washington, U.S.A.-based UniSea, a subsidiary of Japan-based Nippon Suisan Kaisha (NISSUI), had asked the U.S. District Court in Seattle, Washington, to move the case to arbitration.
The class-action complaint filed in May says that more than 1,000 workers were not paid overtime when they worked more than 40 hours per week starting in March 2018.
Judge Thomas S. Zilly determined that “the parties did not have a valid agreement to arbitrate and denies Unisea’s motion to compel arbitration,” he wrote. The judge also denied Unisea’s request for leave to file a separate motion for attorney’s fee.
A jury trial is set for 12 September.
UniSea has also been one of the many Alaska seafood processors to be impacted by COVID-19 outbreaks.
In January, UniSea partially locked down its seafood processing facility in Unalaska, Alaska, after seven of its employees tested positive for COVID-19.
Photo courtesy of UniSea
