Employment Class Action

An Ohio federal judge recently granted class status to mortgage loan officers who allege PNC Bank NA improperly denied them overtime pay, and will allow the current and former employees to search for additional class members. U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley determined that the named plaintiffs and their 45 opt-in class members have met the burden to secure conditional class status in the Fair Labor Standards Act suit, despite PNC’s claims that the named

A class action lawsuit has been filed against Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) alleging the Palo Alto-company did not accurately classify its technical support staff as exempt and did not compensate them for all overtime hours worked in breach of federal overtime regulations.  HP staffs several thousand technical support workers through many of its acquired subsidiaries like Autonomy, Palm, Electronic Data Systems (EDS), 3Com, ArcSight, and 3PAR. 

Refinery workers have reached a $15.5 million deal to resolve their class action against ConocoPhillips Co. that accused the company of failing to provide them with meal breaks during which they were relieved of all duties, the plaintiffs told a California federal court Monday.  The plaintiffs — the United Steelworkers Union and three workers — urged the court to grant preliminary approval to the deal, which comes after more than four years of litigation and

Seven federal judges from across the country claim Congress violated their constitutional and statutory rights when it blocked judicial cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) in six of the past 17 years.  In a lawsuit filed November 30, 2012, in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., the judges contend that Congress effectively lowered their pay by passing appropriations legislation in fiscal years 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2007 and 2010 that stated that judicial salaries would

A federal judge late Friday approved the settlement of a class action lawsuit in which Covelli Enterprises, a major Panera Bread franchisee, was accused of denying promotions to black employees. Under the settlement, any African American who worked for Covelli’s Panera stores for longer than a year and wanted a promotion between January 11, 2008, and January 11, 2012, can get payment for alleged lost opportunities.

A Maryland federal judge has ruled that Geico General Insurance Co. misclassified security investigators as exempt from overtime pay.  In Calderon v. Geico, the Maryland federal court granted the employees’ motion for summary judgment and held that the employee investigators were entitled to receive overtime wages. The court held GEICO had misclassified the employees as exempt from overtime and rejected the employer’s claim that the employees fell within the administrative exemption of the Fair Labor Standards

Baristas who work at Starbucks in Massachusetts are entitled to collect $14.1 million because their tips were shared with supervisors in violation of state law, a federal appeals court has ruled.  The Boston-based First Circuit Court of Appeals said the shift supervisors had managerial responsibility, making them ineligible to share in tips under the Massachusetts statute.

A $20 million class-action suit has been filed against some of New York’s top modeling and advertising agencies, including Ford Models, Next Management and Wilhelmina. The suit, filed on behalf of 31-year-old American model Louisa Raske and other unnamed male and female models, claims that the modeling agencies failed to provide accurate account statements and concealed money received on the models’ behalf. The main problem, the suit asserts, is that the agencies mix their own

Costco employees who sued the retailer for gender bias will be able to proceed with their claims as a group.  U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco certified a class, or group, of plaintiffs, seeking monetary relief that includes several hundred women employed since 2002 who have been subject to the Issaquah, Washington-based company’s system for promotion to management positions. Costco “offers numerous competing explanations for the observed gender disparity in promotions,” Chen said in

A class action lawsuit filed in Medford, Oregon alleges that Sterling Savings Bank systematically violated federal and state labor laws by denying overtime pay to mortgage loan officers and other mortgage origination employees. The lawsuit alleges that Sterling Savings Bank and Golf Savings Bank violated the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Oregon Wage and Hour Laws, and other state labor laws nationwide, and deliberately misclassified mortgage loan officers as exempt from the overtime requirements. 

A hearing in Manhattan on August 24 could significantly enlarge the class action suit two Black Swan interns brought last year against Fox Searchlight. In an order made public on August 14, 2012, Judge William Pauley, III has agreed to a conference next week on Alex Footman and Eric Glatt’s request to amend their suit.  “Plaintiffs will seek to broaden the scope of the case to include all interns who participated in Fox Entertainment Group’s (‘FEG’s”)

Xerox-owned Affiliated Computer Services Inc. has agreed to pay $4.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by employees who believe they were not paid properly going back to 2005. The Oregonian reports that the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Portland in 2009, alleged that ACS failed to pay bonuses as promised and that workers were often delayed from clocking into their shifts on their computers as they searched for a work station

A federal judge has conditionally granted class action status on behalf of a group of Hearst Corporation interns who allegedly weren’t paid for their work at 19 of the company’s magazines, including Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan and Good Housekeeping.  Xuedan Wang, a former intern at Harper’s Bazaar from last August to December, sued Hearst earlier this year, alleging the company violated federal and state labor laws by misclassifying her and other workers as unpaid or underpaid

Regulators moved on May 10, 2012, to seize control of pension plans at Dewey & LeBoeuf, the latest sign of likely collapse at what was once a top U.S. law firm.  Dewey also faced its first lawsuit over plans to fire hundreds of employees. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation said it would take responsibility for three pension plans covering 1,800 current and future retirees.  The plans were underfunded by $80 million, it said.

Geek Squad workers have filed a class action law suit against parent company Best Buy, alleging they were forced to work off the clock and without rest periods. Lawsuits accusing employers of not paying their workers properly have exploded in the last few years, as recession lay offs required employers to lean more heavily on fewer workers.  Reports suggest that in 2011, companies in the S&P 500 made $420,000 in revenue per employee even as

According to a class action complaint filed in federal court in California, the international law firm Perkins Coie docks paychecks for costs that employers are required to bear, such as workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, Medicare costs, Social Security costs,  and “accounting fees.”  Lead plaintiff, Harold DeGraff, says he joined the firm’s Menlo Park, California office as a transactional corporate attorney in 2007.