California IT Overtime: Class Action Lawsuit Gives Employees Hope

Santa Clara, CAEmployees who are not paid for their California IT overtime may be able to take heart: a California computer professional lawsuit, alleging unpaid overtime, has been granted class action status. Although this is not an indication that California software developers will win their lawsuits, this does give the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit more power in the case than if class action status had not been granted.

The lawsuit, entitled Clark Chapman, and Diem Phuong Dang v. Intel Corporation, was filed in Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara. The suit was filed on behalf of Intel employees who held the job titles of Systems Integrators and Graphics System Validation Engineers.

In making its ruling, the court denied class action status for System Validation Engineers because neither of the named plaintiffs held that job title. However, the court did allow plaintiffs the opportunity to amend the request for certification of System Validation Engineers if they could find a representative who had that job title.

The lawsuit alleged that Intel employees with those job titles were not paid properly for overtime work because they were misclassified as exempt from overtime pay. This is not an uncommon complaint in the IT world. Many California workers say they have been improperly misclassified as exempt from overtime pay by employers who either did not properly understand the rules or were trying to save money by not paying overtime.

California IT lawsuits can result in large awards for plaintiffs. In 2006, IBM settled a class action lawsuit for $65 million. The lawsuit was filed by technology workers who claimed the company withheld their overtime pay, illegally of course. In that lawsuit, the workers were classified as Technical Services Professional and Information Technology Specialists.

In another massive settlement, Computer Sciences Corp. settled an overtime class action lawsuit for $24 million. And, in yet another lawsuit, Siebel Systems Inc. settled a class action lawsuit for $27.5 million after software engineers and senior software engineers claimed they were improperly denied overtime pay.

Those $65 million, $27.5 million and $24 million settlements would never have happened if IT employees had not decided they had had enough and taken matters into their own hands. They determined that they were being illegally denied overtime pay and, rather than just accepting it as being an unfair part of their employment, they took action. They now have compensation that they would never have received if they had not filed a lawsuit.

Furthermore, their settlements might mean that in the future those IT workers are paid for working overtime, if they are still eligible for overtime pay. So a lawsuit may not only compensate them for hours they already worked, it may also ensure they receive proper pay in the future.

So, what does that mean for you, a California software employee who believes he has been improperly denied overtime pay? It means that all may not be lost. It means that you may be able to receive compensation for all those long hours you put in, working hard for your employer while not being properly paid. It means that those hours of overtime may still earn you the money you deserve. It means that you should contact an attorney to discuss the particulars of your situation.