First Bank Home Loan Consultant Alleges Employee Misclassification

First Bank is facing a potential class action California wage and hour lawsuit alleging employee misclassification of their home loan consultants, to allegedly avoid paying overtime rates and other minimum wage benefits.

The class action California wage and hour lawsuit was filed by a former home loan consultant, who alleges he was not paid overtime the entire duration of his employment period at First Bank.

Plaintiff Marcus C. says he worked for First Bank from November 2016 until April 30, 2018, during which he and other home loan consultants were allegedly systematically misclassified as “outside sales” employees, which are exempt under the state’s labor laws.

Marcus says this means that he and other loan consultants were paid purely on commission from loans generated and funded, while not having a reliable hourly rate.

Misclassification Lawsuit Details

According to the class action California wage and hour lawsuit, Marcus was provided with no orientation or training in First Bank’s loan processing system.

When hired, Marcus was under the impression there would be sufficient loan support and processing staff that would help him get customers for home loan and mortgage applications, but this was allegedly not the case. Marcus and other loan consultants allegedly had to obtain customers through their own sources.

Marcus also alleges that assigned First Bank branch managers and supervisors required his assistance for regular banking business purposes. This prevented him and other loan consultants from giving their full attention to their primary occupational duties, he claims.

Marcus alleges that he and other loan consultants spent 80 percent or more of their workweeks at their assigned First Branch locations while working 55 to 60 hours per week. He says the majority of their time was spent assisting in bank related duties that were not related to their actual jobs, which prevented them from sufficient customer acquisition.

He argues that First Bank’s requirements prevented him from engaging in many sales activities. These activities allegedly caused Marcus and other loan consultants to be severely underpaid.

The lawsuit alleges the bank, like other accused banks, used employee misclassification to avoid paying overtime and other compensation. In addition, First Bank also allegedly disregarded Labor Code section 2802, which required Marcus and other loan consultants to pay full price for all business uses of smartphones and home internet services without reimbursement.

Loan consultants allegedly had to login through the company’s computer system to log every detail of their work, or they reportedly risked losing commission. First Bank allegedly had complete control of their work environment and how they conducted their jobs, which Marcus argues further shows that he and other employees were wrongfully misclassified as exempt.

Overview of California Labor Laws

Under California labor laws, employees can only be exempt if they make over $45,760 in a yearly salary or if they have some kind of authority over other employees.

Outside sales staff are also typically exempt from minimum wage benefits due to the fact that their employers are not supposed to have a lot of control or influence over how they perform their occupational duties.

Like the federal requirements, California labor laws require companies pay employees one and a half their hourly rate if the employee works over 40 hours a week or eight hours in a single workday. First Bank allegedly failed to do this for Marcus and other loan consultants.

Marcus is seeking damages caused by the company’s alleged systemic employee misclassification.

His California Wage and Hour Lawsuit is Case No. 30-2019-01053407-CU-OE-CXC, in the Superior Court Of The State Of California County Of Orange – Civil Complex Center.

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