Customer service reps have filed a class action lawsuit for unpaid overtime in federal court in Chicago. The employees bringing the suit had the job titles of Treasury Management Advisors, Senior Specialist-Securities and other like titles. The employees' job duties included such things as handling email and executing customer requests regarding their accounts, managing escrow accounts from pay agencies, transferring and/or sending out funds, making payments on bonds, and making principal and interest payments. They were paid a salary, regularly worked more than 40 hours per workweek, often up to 50 hours and claim that they were not exempt from overtime pay requirements.
You can read a copy of the overtime complaint: Kaminski v Bank of America.
The key to this lawsuit is whether the employees had and exercised discretionary judgment in the performance of their duties; Bank of America will surely argue that they did and therefore that they are exempt from overtime pay requirements. However, if the employees were required to strictly follow instructions given by others, whether they be the customers themselves or higher-ups in Bank of America, they likely were not exempt from overtime pay requirements.
An important thing to remember is that being paid on a salary basis does not alone mean that an employee is exempt from overtime pay requirements; the employee must both be paid on a salary basis and have job duties of a nature that cause them to fall within one of the job classifications that are exempt from overtime pay requirements. I have discussed this quite a few times previously: Does being paid a salary mean that I don't have to be paid overtime?, Are Shift Supervisors Exempt from Overtime Pay Requirements?, and Does a job title determine whether an employee is exempt from overtime pay requirements?
Lexington, Kentucky overtime lawyer Robert Abell helps individuals and employees recover the overtime they've earned but not been paid; contact him at 859-254-7076.