Rudolph Friedmann's $6.5 million settlement in the class action case involving 450 employees of Allied Waste Services of Massachusetts appeared in the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly list of the "Largest Verdicts & Settlements of 2015." The case, Swiderski v. Allied Waste Services of Massachusetts, which was handled by Jonathon Friedmann and Adam Shafran, was the sixth largest settlement of 2015 and the largest employment settlement of the year.
The lawsuit, which was covered by The Boston Globe, NECN, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly and other media outlets, stemmed from allegations that Allied, a trash disposal company, used an unlawful payroll formula to miscalculate health insurance deductions from garbage and recycling drivers' pay between 2008 and 2015. The case is a reminder to employers about the importance of properly calculating their employees' health-insurance deductions and the potential implications for violations of the Commonwealth's strict wage laws.