A 2026 Class Action Says Duarte Nursery Didn’t Pay Hourly Workers for All the Time They Worked.

On Jan. 21, 2026, a former Duarte Nursery worker filed a proposed class action against Duarte Nursery in Stanislaus County Superior Court. She says she worked for the nursery in Hughson as an hourly “Plant Sorting” employee from 2012 to 2022, and she is suing on behalf of herself and the nursery’s other non-exempt employees.

The complaint alleges that the nursery had “a policy and practice of failing to properly record the time worked by non-exempt employees, including all time spent working off the clock.” It also alleges that the nursery left bonuses and other pay out when calculating overtime and sick pay, did not provide all required meal and rest breaks or pay the premiums owed when it didn’t, and did not reimburse necessary business expenses. These are allegations. No court has ruled on them, and the court has not certified a class.

Off-the-clock work is work an employee does without being paid for it. For an hourly worker, a few unpaid minutes a day add up over months and years, and so do overtime and sick pay calculated at too low a rate. The lawsuit seeks repayment of those wages for the nursery’s hourly workforce, going back four years before it was filed.

How the case has changed

The original complaint listed nine claims, including separate claims for unpaid minimum wages and overtime, meal and rest period violations, unpaid sick time, inaccurate wage statements, and late final paychecks. In April, Duarte Nursery asked the court to dismiss eight of them, arguing they were filed after the three-year statute of limitations had run.

In May, before that request was heard, the plaintiff filed an amended complaint. It makes the same core allegations under a single claim, California’s Unfair Competition Law, which has a four-year deadline, and seeks repayment of unpaid wages. The proposed class is all current and former hourly employees who worked for the nursery in California from four years before the original filing through trial. On June 30, 2026, Duarte Nursery filed its answer.

This is not the first lawsuit of its kind. In 2015, four workers filed a proposed class action over wages and breaks against the nursery and members of its leadership, including John Duarte.

Alexandra Duarte, a Republican, is running for California State Senate District 4 on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot. She is married to former Rep. John Duarte, who has served as the nursery’s president.