Week Adjourned: 10.30.09

Bit of irony, no?The Age of the Overtime Class Action…

Top Class Actions

Wells, It’s Official… Wells Fargo is now facing a wages and overtime class action filed by technical support staff who allege that they were not paid for time worked in excess of 40 hours per week.

The suit covers all network engineers, operating systems engineers, information security analysts, technical service specialists, systems support analysts, web engineers, web support engineers, web systems engineers, operating systems analysts (level 2), systems QA analysts (levels 2 or 3), computer operations analysts (levels 3 or 4), database administrators (levels 2 or 3), and applications systems engineers (level 3) who worked for Wells Fargo as exempt employees at any time during the past three years anywhere in the United States. It is estimated that about 3,000 employees are eligible to participate in the unpaid overtime class action.

Eligible employees have 75 days to join the lawsuit.

BOA Constricting Overtime Pay? And then there’s Bank of America: A lawsuit was filed this week on behalf of telephone-dedicated employees for unpaid wages and overtime worked at company call centers across the country. The lawsuit was filed as a collective action, which means that other Bank of America employees with similar job duties may join the case to seek their unpaid wages.

All call center employees that are eligible for overtime pay must submit their timesheets for approval by management. A timekeeping system (eWorkplace) is utilized to keep track of all overtime hours. The lawsuit alleges that BOA allows managers to unilaterally modify or decrease time recorded by overtime-eligible associates. Additionally, BOA allows managers to instruct overtime-eligible associates to modify or decrease their recorded time before the manager will approve.

Top Settlements

Rollback on Pay? A federal court judge in Nevada has granted final approval to an $85 million wage and hour class action filed by past and present employees of North Dakota Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

The suit alleged that hourly employees were asked to work off the clock and that their breaks were shortened or not provided on a regular basis.

If you were or are an hourly employee who worked for Wal-Mart in the year 2000 and beyond you may file a claim. The last day for eligible North Dakota Wal-Mart employees to submit a request for a portion of the settlement is Nov. 9. Better get your skates on.

Pyrrhic Victory for Asbestos Victim: A $1.5 million settlement was awarded to the estate of instrument repairman Ronald Drabczyk on October 19, resolving a lawsuit filed prompted by the death of Mr. Drabczyk at Hooker Chemical in Buffalo, New York. He was exposed to asbestos on the job.

Drabczyk died from asbestos mesothelioma, a form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos fibers. Drabczyk repaired valves manufactured by Fisher Controls which contained asbestos gaskets and packing.

That’s all folks…see you at the bar—or maybe the out trick or treating. Have a happy…

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