Coffee Bean hit with $200,000 penalties in overtime suit.

WAKE up and smell the lawsuits.

International Coffee & Tea LLC, parent of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf chain, has agreed to pay $100,003 to 350 current and former California employees who allege they were forced to work off the clock and denied overtime pay.

As part of a new state law, called the Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004, the coffee retailer also agreed to pay $100,000 to the State of California. Under that law, also known as the "Sue Your Boss" law, an individual may act as a de-facto prosecutor by bringing an action against an employer on behalf of other employees and may seek penalties for each violation. Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger passed amendments to the law to make it harder to file such suits.

In the Coffee Bean case, a former Los Angeles store manager claimed that the company policy was to "punch out of the time clock after completing eight hours of work for the day, but to continue working until all of his or her duties were completed," according to court papers. The store manager, Claudine Rose Alfano, who was fired in April 2004, filed suit on behalf of all store managers, supervisors and trainers who worked at the chain since July 2003 and did not receive overtime.

A lawyer for the employees, Alan Harris, a partner at Harris & Ruble, declined to comment, as did Keith Jacoby, a partner at Littler Mendelson who represents International Coffee and Tea.

Staff reporter Amanda Bronstad can be reached at [phone], ext. 225, or at [e-mail].