Tax Season a Good Time to Review Overtime Policies
January 14, 2009 by Lela Davidson
Filed under Finance
With tax season on the horizon, administrative housekeeping is the last thing on accounting firm partners’ minds. However, it’s crucial to make sure your policies are in order before employees start putting in crazy spring hours.
Merrill Lynch and Bank of America are being sued by two Derivatives Settlement Specialists for violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The finanacial firms are accused of failing to pay overtime to back office employees who facilitate transactions of the company’s derivatives products.
The lawsuit alleges that the plaintiffs and others:
- have been blatantly misclassified as ‘exempt’, and
- have regularly worked in excess of 40 hours per week and were not paid time and one half for any and all hours over 40 in a given week
Financial services firms are known for long hours (bankers’ hours? right… ). CPA Blog reports on a disturbing trend.
“In California — where labor laws are stricter than on the East Coast — the accounting industry was being scrutinized for labor violations. [Seth Kaplan] noted that the lawsuits tend to be industry-wide and move from the West Coast to the East.”
Attorney Brian Schaffer, who represents the workers in the Merrill Lynch/Bank of America lawsuit, said he will seek to have it certified as a collective action in order to recover unpaid wages, liquidated damages, attorneys’ fees, costs and interest for current and former Merrill Lynch Derivatives Settlement Specialists who elect to opt-in to the legal action and who have been employed by Merrill Lynch at any time within the past three years. That’s going to add up.
“We allege that Merrill Lynch egregiously violated federal wage and overtime laws,” Mr. Schaffer said. “Many salaried employees work over 40 hours in a week, but are unaware they are entitled to premium overtime pay. Companies must be held accountable for taking advantage of these salaried employees.”
The case is “Andrea Levine and Ivey Moore, et al., v. Merrill Lynch, et al.,” (U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, Case No. 09 cv 304).
What do you think? Who should receive overtime, and who’s just got to put in their time?
Image Credit: mrkathika, Flickr
