LOS ANGELES — Tellers and other bank employees for JPMorgan Chase Bank NA appear to have reached a settlement with the bank in their class action overtime pay lawsuit. The parties have submitted the $12 million settlement agreement to a California federal court judge. They are now seeking preliminary approval.
The Settlement
Both parties agreed to mediation in March and reached a tentative agreement in July of this year. The settlement is expected to include around 145,000 current and former employees in 12 states who worked off the clock. Without the settlement, the plaintiffs claim it could take years to resolve the matter at trial and even a successful trial would likely provide an inferior resolution. The settlement allows the affected employees to share in a guaranteed minimum of $5 million of the $12 million settlement. Close to $4.3 million are designated for attorneys’ fees, costs, and claims administration. The remaining amount is designated for the plaintiffs but payouts are dependent upon the number of claims submitted by eligible class members.
Claims Against The Bank
The Chase employees filed the first of five lawsuits in 2011. All five lawsuits were later consolidated and the plaintiffs requested class certification in 2013. The company’s bankers, sales specialists, tellers, and assistant branch manager trainees alleged the company was not paying proper wages nor were employees receiving overtime when they worked more than 40 hours a week. They claimed they were encouraged to work off the clock before and after their shifts and regularly worked overtime. Moreover, the plaintiffs claim they were discouraged from accurately recording their hours and managers would allegedly alter time records, presumably without consent. Additionally, the employees claim Chase failed to provide meal and rest breaks that were duty-free. They also claimed the company denied employees compensation for uniforms. These actions, according to the tellers’ lawsuit, violated not only the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) it also violated the state labor laws of 12 states: Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, New York, Washington, Texas, Wisconsin, and California. To compound the time record problem, Chase’s accounting system converted employees’ times twice, first into fractions of an hour then into decimals, which further altered the time employees’ were credited.
If you are a Chase employee affected by this decision or have been negatively affected by the company’s timekeeping practices, our knowledgeable team of overtime pay lawyers can help evaluate your situation and options. Call our experienced team of overtime pay lawyers today at (855) 754-2795 or complete the Free Unpaid Overtime Case Review form and our experienced legal team will evaluate your case. If we accept your case, we will represent you under our No Fee Promise. This means there are no legal fees or costs unless you receive a settlement.