Orange County Employment Lawyers Blog
Wells Fargo may have won the most recent round of wage and hour theft litigation, but the scrutiny it appears is far from over. 
In Richardson v. Wells Fargo Bank, plaintiffs allege defendant violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by improperly classifying them as exempt employees, and thus failing to pay them the appropriate overtime they were due. Specifically, these were home mortgage consultants that were classified as being exempt from overtime .However, plaintiffs were also members of a class that had settled a class action lawsuit in California over these FLSA claims. The members had opted out of that settlement, but the district court ruled the previous settlement precluded this lawsuit and satisfied due process requirements. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reviewed and agreed, affirming district court’s grant of summary judgment for defendant.
But that isn’t likely to be the end of Wells Fargo’s legal woes. CNNMoney has been following the newest wage theft violations, which has drawn the attention of the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), which is reportedly now investigating after receiving “a number” of whistleblower complaints from the bank’s workers over the last five years. Continue Reading ›
