Portland small claims court denies $160 wage claim over disputed Saturday shift

A small claims court in Portland denied Nora Bell’s claim for $160 in unpaid wages against Linden Parcel LLC, finding that the evidence did not establish she worked the April 6 shift or earned the wages she sought.

Bell said she worked eight hours without pay. Linden Parcel disputed whether the record proved she attended. The court entered judgment for the company and awarded Bell nothing, while stopping short of finding that she missed the shift.

The Saturday schedule listed Bell and Witness 1 for 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It established that Bell was assigned to the shift, the court said, but did not record attendance, hours worked or payment. Repeated presentations of the same schedule were not independent corroboration.

The court considered Bell’s account that she worked and was not paid, but found no independent confirmation of attendance. Witness 1’s admitted testimony was uncertain, and no camera footage was available. The court did not treat the unavailable footage as evidence for either side.

The parties discussed a payroll entry showing zero hours, but no payroll exhibit was presented for the court to verify. Even as described, the entry could not resolve whether Bell missed the shift or worked without clocking in.

Bell bore the burden of establishing that she worked and was owed wages. Although eight hours at $20 an hour made the requested $160 arithmetically clear, the court found that the underlying hours and unpaid wages had not been established.

Bell asked the court to consider her account alongside the schedule. Her side argued that the described zero-hour entry did not distinguish an absence from a missed clock-in, while acknowledging that the schedule alone did not prove attendance or all eight hours.

Linden Parcel argued that an assignment was not proof of work and asked the court to deny the claim unless Bell established that she worked. It raised company or worker camera footage as a possible way to check, but none was available in the record.

Bell’s claim concerned a single April 6 shift. The record said employees sometimes forgot to clock in, and the company had no current proof that Bell was present or absent.

The judgment resolves the wage claim on the evidence available at the hearing. It does not establish that Bell missed the shift or that Linden Parcel paid her; the company did not prove either point, but that did not remove Bell’s burden to support her claim.