Supreme Court Refuses Appeal of Drug Companies regarding Overtime Pay

Washington, DCThe US Supreme Court recently ruled against drug companies who were appealing previous decisions that said pharmaceutical sales representatives were, in fact, eligible to receive overtime pay, the Wall Street Journal reports.

span itemprop="image" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" style="display:block">According to the news provider, the justices agreed with a ruling by a federal appeals court in New York that reinstated the overtime pay claims of 2,500 sales representatives who had worked for Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp.

The court ruled that the workers were not part of the exception for overtime pay because they did not actually sell anything, even though they were involved in the promotion of certain medications to doctors.

The news source reports that the Department of Labor supported the sales representatives in the overtime pay case. However, the drug companies, which also include Schering Corp., argued that the decision would cost US businesses employing sales representatives a significant amount of money.

Schering Corp. is a unit of Merck & Co., which is headquartered in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, according to the company's Web site.