$35 Million Settlement Reached in Wells Fargo Overtime Case

A potential $35 million settlement between Wells Fargo & Co. and a number of current and former employees received preliminary approval by a federal judge.

The settlement stems from a case filed in October 2016, in which current and former employees claim they were not being paid overtime while working outside of standard bank hours. This includes customer service representatives, personal bankers, private bankers, business bankers and senior business banking specialists.

Employees in the case allege they were forced to work hours off the clock to meet senior management’s sales targets. It was impossible to achieve those sales in a 40-hour work week, so employees were forced to work overtime and were allegedly not compensated for doing so.

Several U.S. senators requested an investigation into the bank after these allegations first came out to determine whether or not the corporation violated the Fair Labor Standards Act. In their investigation into the issue, they discovered employee complaints about similar wage and hour violations going back as far as 1999, indicating this had been a consistent issue at Wells Fargo.

FLSA violations often go unreported

It can be very difficult for officials to discover FLSA violations without being informed of them by the employees affected. However, it is important for employees to know they have the right to stand up for themselves, and that there are federal laws in place to protect them against abusive labor practices. Employees who blow the whistle on FLSA violations can receive awards for their assistance in uncovering the violations, and companies found to have violated the FLSA can be subjected to various fines and punishments.

If you are aware of FLSA violations within your workplace, speak with a trusted whistleblower attorney at Kardell Law Group about how best to report that information and protect your rights.