Wells Fargo Faces California Overtime Class Action Lawsuit

San Diego, CACalifornia overtime laws are designed to ensure that employees who work extra hours receive overtime pay in California. However, despite California employee overtime laws, some people find they are not properly paid for additional hours they work, causing them to file lawsuits to ensure they receive appropriate compensation.

One lawsuit was filed on behalf of current and former Wells Fargo technical support staff, whose jobs were to install, maintain and support the bank's software and hardware. The plaintiffs sought class action status for the suit, and a judge has now certified the lawsuit as a class action. Approximately 3,000 employees could be eligible to join the lawsuit.

Plaintiffs filed the lawsuit alleging that they should have received overtime pay for any hours that they worked in excess of 40 hours per week. The class action lawsuit now covers a variety of job titles, including network engineers, operating systems engineers, technical service specialists and applications systems engineers who were considered exempt from overtime during the past three years.

"Wells Fargo became one of the nation's largest banks in large part because of the hard work and dedication of its employees, including those that keep its computer systems operating properly," stated plaintiff Aaron Cooper. "I am glad that my fellow IT support workers can join the case and have the opportunity to get paid for the many hours of overtime they have worked for many years."

This is in vast contrast to more than 100 nurses and psychiatric workers paid by the State of California who doubled their salaries with overtime pay. According to a state auditor, some nurses and psychiatric workers worked up to 90 hours a week. One such nurse made $733,000 in overtime over five years. The nurse worked 51 extra hours each week, according the auditor's report (cited in the Los Angeles Times, October 21, 2009).

In a letter to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers, the auditor, Elaine Howle, expressed concern that patient safety, and employee health and safety, could be compromised by the excessive overtime hours.

Although it is a good sign that the state appears to properly compensate employees for overtime hours, those extra hours could put people's health at risk. However, many employees who live in California find themselves on the other end of the spectrum—no matter how many overtime hours they work, they are not properly compensated for those hours, leaving them to turn to the courts to ensure they are properly paid.