Ruth Zadikany

Ruth has extensive experience defending employers in wage-hour class actions and PAGA representative actions involving employee misclassification claims, meal and rest break violations, failure to pay overtime, work-off-the-clock, incorrect pay statements, rounding and expense reimbursement claims, and waiting-time and other penalties, as well as litigation involving wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. Ruth also represents companies in a variety of other types of class and individual actions, such as actions involving enforcement or violations of restrictive covenants, as well as actions under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

Ruth represents national and international employers in various industries, including airlines, financial institutions, real estate companies, retailers, insurance companies, manufacturers, technology companies, security defense contractors, and food industry clients. She works with clients to review and improve their employment practices and policies, prepare employment documents (including employment agreements, offer letter, arbitration agreements, and confidentiality and restrictive covenants agreements), develop and implement Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs, and to implement proactive strategies to avoid employment disputes. She regularly counsels and advises clients on day-to-day employment matters, including investigating sensitive sexual harassment and discrimination claims, enforcing restrictive covenants, making discipline and termination decisions, reductions in force, structuring compensation programs, and privacy-related issues. Ruth also advises on labor and employment matters in corporate transactions, including drafting language for purchase agreements, assisting with post-acquisition employee integration, and assessing due diligence materials. She also has experience advising employers in labor matters, including with respect to union elections, collective bargaining agreement negotiations, and effects bargaining negotiations. Ruth regularly contributes to the firm’s publications and client updates on key developments in the labor and employment area throughout the country.

Prior to joining Mayer Brown, Ruth worked as an attorney in the Labor and Employment practice group of a law firm in Tel Aviv, Israel, where her practice focused on traditional labor and employment litigation, executive compensation, and international transactions, including mergers and acquisitions.

• Representing national landscaping company in a wage-and-hour PAGA representative action alleging failure to pay wages, failure to provide meal and rest periods, work off-the-clock, and other violations of the California Labor Code. The case implicates the enforcement of the employer’s arbitration agreement with respect to PAGA claims.
• Representing mortgage company in an action enforcing its non-solicitation of employees restrictive covenant and alleging claims for misappropriation of confidential information and breach of duty of loyalty in connection with a raid of employees by former employees and a competitor at one of the employer’s locations.
• Represented airline in a wage-and-hour class action and PAGA representative action alleging violations of numerous California Labor Code requirements due to the alleged misclassification of pilots as exempt employees, implicating the extraterritorial application of California law. Successfully obtained dismissal of numerous claims following a motion to dismiss/motion to strike, including on the grounds of preemption by the Railway Labor Act due to the existence of a collective bargaining agreement.
• Defended airline in class action and PAGA representative action alleging failure to provide meal and rest periods to flight attendants, implicating the application of California law to employees who work primarily outside the state, as well as wrongful deduction of payroll taxes. Successfully obtained dismissal of the meal and rest periods claims following a motion to dismiss on the grounds that such claims were barred by the extraterritorial application of California law.
• Represented defense contractor in misappropriation of confidential information, breach of duty of loyalty, and defamation action against former employees in connection with false and misleading statements made to the media in connection with the company’s operations.
• Defended manufacturing client in wage-hour class action and PAGA representative action alleging failure to provide meal periods, inadequate wage statements, and failure to pay overtime.
• Defended gig economy company in a number of lawsuits alleging claims that it violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
• Defended food industry client against claims that it failed to make appropriate disclosures required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
• Defended pet store in a hybrid nationwide collective action under the Fair Labor Standard Act and a putative class action under four different state laws against claims that it misclassified its employees as exempt.
• Defended multinational manufacturer of thin film solar panels in putative class action, in which the plaintiff sought to represent hundreds of former employees alleging violations of the federal and state WARN Acts, as well as other California Labor Code violations.
• Defended food industry client in wage-and-hour class action filed in California state court. Plaintiffs sought to represent a putative class of several thousand employees and temps, alleging the employer had violated numerous provisions of the Labor Code, including failing to pay employees for donning and doffing personal protective equipment and related activities.
• Defended multinational manufacturer of medical device components in putative wage-and-hour class action, alleging failure to pay overtime based on improper calculation of “regular rate of pay” by failing to include meal period premiums in the regular rate. Successfully obtained dismissal of the overtime claim following a motion to dismiss, which dismissal was unanimously affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
• Defended multinational manufacturer of medical device components in putative wage-and-hour class action filed in the Central District of California, alleging failure to pay overtime based on improper calculation of “regular rate of pay” and meal period violations in contravention of the California Labor Code. Successfully obtained dismissal of the overtime claims following a motion to dismiss/motion to strike and later defeated a motion for class certification of remaining meal period claims. She then proceeded to defeat the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment with respect to his individual claims. Successfully moved to dismiss the plaintiff’s appeal in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Defended false advertising putative class action against multinational manufacturer of solid state storage devices filed in federal court in the Northern District of California. Obtained dismissal of the majority of the financial value of the case by successfully challenging the plaintiff’s standing to assert claims with respect to products that he did not purchase and advertising upon which he did not rely. Reached pre-certification settlement of the putative class representative’s claims for a nominal settlement amount.