Wells Fargo IT Worker Overtime Pay Class Action Lawsuit
Plaintiffs File Motion for Certification of Class Action Under California and Minnesota State Laws and ERISA
On February 18, 2010, Plaintiffs filed their Motion for Class Certification, seeking certification of classes of technical support workers asserting claims under California and Minnesota wage and hour laws, and under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA"). The hearing on Plaintiffs' motion will be held on April 22, 2010 at 2:00 pm.
Plaintiffs are represented by the law firms Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP (firm resume) and Haber Polk Kabat, LLP (firm resume).
Court Grants Conditional Certification of Collective Action Under Fair Labor Standards Act: 75-Day Deadline Applies for Eligible Wells Fargo Workers to Join Case
On October 26, 2009, Judge Claudia Wilken of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California granted Plaintiffs' motion for conditional certification of the case as a collective action.
A short notice and a one-page "Consent to Join" form will soon be sent by U.S. mail and email to several thousand employees. Each employee should protect his or her rights by returning the form to Plaintiffs' counsel. Forms must be received (or, if mailed, postmarked) on or before February 1, 2010. The time period for which an individual can recover overtime pay is calculated by counting backwards from the date on which his or her Consent to Join form is filed. Therefore, each day of delay in filing the form can result in a day of lost eligibility for overtime damages.
Click here for the Consent Form that employees must submit to protect their rights. This form can be submitted by mail, fax, or email. Please include the second page, which is an information sheet that will help us reach you to confirm your membership in the class and keep you updated about developments in the case.
Click here for the Court-approved Notice to the class.
"Wells Fargo employees who wish to protect their rights should promptly send in the form and the attached information sheet. If class members fail to submit their form, they cannot recover under federal law," explained Kelly M. Dermody of Lieff Cabraser.
Which Technical Support Workers Are Included?
The Court's October 26, 2009 order certified a class that includes current and former employees of Wells Fargo who have worked, while classified as exempt,
- at any time between September 3, 2006 and October 26, 2009 as a Network Engineer (all levels), or
- at any time between October 14, 2006 and October 26, 2009 as an
Applications Systems Engineer (level 3),
Computer Operations Analyst (levels 3 or 4),
Database Analyst (levels 2 or 3),
Information Security Analyst (all levels),
Network Analyst (level 2),
Operating Systems Analyst (level 2),
Operating Systems Engineer (all levels),
Systems QA Analyst (levels 2 or 3),
Systems Support Analyst (all levels),
Technical Service Specialist (all levels),
Web Engineer (all levels),
Web Support Engineer (all levels), or
Web Systems Engineer (all levels).
An estimated 3,000 employees are eligible to participate. Wells Fargo reclassified some of these employees to hourly status and paid many of them what plaintiffs allege are incomplete backpay awards. These reclassified workers are eligible to participate even if they received such payments.
Background: Plaintiffs Seek to Recover Overtime Pay for Technical Support Workers
On May 28, 2008, information technology (IT) support workers of Wells Fargo filed a class action seeking overtime pay in accordance with the Fair Labor Standards Act and California wage and hour laws. This class action lawsuit, Lewis v. Wells Fargo & Co., was filed in federal court in San Francisco.
Plaintiffs brought the case on behalf of themselves and all current and former technical support workers within and outside the Wells Fargo Technology Infrastructure Group (TIG) (now called TOG, for Technology & Operations Group) with the primary duties of installing, maintaining, and/or supporting computer software and/or hardware. Plaintiffs allege that Wells Fargo's decision to classify them as exempt and not pay them for all hours worked violates federal and state law.
To read a copy of the Second Amended Complaint describing Plaintiffs' allegations, please click here.
Contact Lieff Cabraser
If you believe you may be covered by this lawsuit, or have information you would like to share, please contact us by clicking here or by calling us at 800-541-7358 or 415-956-1000.
We Have Recovered Over $100 Million in Overtime Pay for Tech Workers in Other Cases
In recent years, our firm (Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP), along with co-counsel, has represented technical support workers seeking to recover overtime pay in similar class action cases. Such cases have resulted in settlements for the technical support workers, including: $24 million for IT workers at Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) in 2005, $12.8 million for BSCs at Wells Fargo in 2007, $65 million for IT workers at IBM in 2007, and $7.7 million for IT workers at Cadence in 2008.
About Lieff Cabraser
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP is a sixty-plus attorney law firm that has represented plaintiffs nationwide since 1972. We have offices in San Francisco, New York and Nashville. We represent plaintiffs in class and group actions and in individual lawsuits in cases involving substantial losses. For the last seven years, the National Law Journal has selected Lieff Cabraser as one of the top plaintiffs' law firms in the nation.
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