$54.5 Million Settlement Reached in Overtime Violation Case

Bloomberg LP and a settlement class of help desk representatives reached a $54.5 million settlement in a federal court in New York earlier this summer. The representatives alleged the company wrongfully exempted them from overtime pay.

The case in question was brought by a former employee of Bloomberg’s analytics department on behalf of all the company’s analytics representatives, claiming the company failed to pay overtime for hours worked from April 14 through June. The case was filed as a collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Plaintiffs claimed numerous FLSA violations

In the lawsuit, the employees allege the company knew about the issue and required analytics representatives to work on a salaried basis, but did not pay them overtime pay for the overtime hours they worked. Under the FLSA, an employee being salaried does not preclude him or her from receiving time-and-a-half overtime premium pay.

Workers were alleged to have been required to start working before their scheduled start time, work through their lunch hours and continue working after their shift technically ended to provide customer support for the company. Representatives were also directed to work at home without overtime pay.

The lawsuit also accuses Bloomberg of occasionally paying workers for weekend or holiday work time using compensation time, which is illegal for private employers to do.

Any individuals who worked as analytics representatives for Bloomberg during the period outlined in the suit and who did not receive overtime pay could be eligible to take part in the settlement.

For more information on how to join a class-action lawsuit and the steps to take if you believe your employer has been engaged in wrongdoing, contact an experienced Dallas whistleblower attorney at Kardell Law Group.