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Insurance company GEICO intimidates its employees into invoicing for less hours per day than they actually worked by creating a culture where people are afraid to speak up, a new class action lawsuit alleges.
In the multi-state class action filed Wednesday in a Pennsylvania federal court, Plaintiff Susan Olivia Hart accuses GEICO of violating federal and state laws through pressuring its employees out of their deserved overtime payments.
Hart has been employed by GEICO as a claims assessor since May 2018. She says she works 8 a.m. to 5:30 or 6:30 p.m., five days per week, and does not take a meal break of any significant length.
However, she says GEICO instructs her to enter 7.75 hours per day of work, despite the fact she works 9.5 – 10.5 hours per day.
“Through GEICO-company wide policies and business practices, carried out through intimidation tactics and implied adverse employment consequences, GEICO successfully pressures Plaintiff and [other employees] to customarily enter 7.75 hours of compensable time per day, notwithstanding that plaintiff and [other employees] regularly and customarily worked more between 8-10 hours per day.”
Hart says GEICO instructed supervisors that 7.75 hours per day was sufficient if employees were “working hard and doing their job.” The implication is that if an employee works beyond 7.75 hours, it means “poor work performance,” the claim alleges.
The class action says the insurance firm has created a culture that encourages people to “stay quiet and allow GEICO to steal their hours/wages rather than speak up.”
Hart says speaking up risks your reputation at work, and could lead to negative performance reviews and other consequences. The class action alleges employees should have been paid overtime, but they were intimidated out of it.
Hart is suing for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act and other employee protection laws.
She is seeking to represent all Region 1 Automobile or Residential Damage Claims Adjusters who worked for GEICO in Pennsylvania, Maryland, District of Columbia, Delaware or West Virginia in the last three years and who were paid on an hourly basis and not compensated for overtime. She is also seeking to represent two Pennsylvania subclasses.
The class action asked for certification of the class action, damages and owed wages, interest, fees, costs and a jury trial.
Meanwhile, GEICO frequently faces class actions and lawsuits over its business practices.
Earlier this month, it was accused of “systematically and uniformly underpaying” thousands of consumers who suffered the total loss of their vehicle, while vehicles were insured with comprehensive coverage, according to another class action lawsuit.
In another recent class action lawsuit, plaintiffs allege Geico charged exorbitant premiums during the pandemic based on old and irrelevant data, misled customers about passing on savings, and ultimately profited off the pandemic.
What do you think of GEICO’s alleged practice of intimidating its employees out of overtime payment? Let us know in the comments!
The plaintiff is represented by Zachary E. Nahass of CGA Law Firm.
The GEICO FLSA Class Action Lawsuit is Hart et al., v. GEICO, Case No. 4:21-cv-00859-MWB, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
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24 thoughts onGEICO Pressures Employees to Enter Less Hours Than They Work, Class Action Alleges
100% true. There’s a reason that Adjusters are not required to punch in and out at the beginning and end of their shift or punch out for breaks be they paid or otherwise. The Company knows full well it takes advantage of its Adjusters and not keeping proper time records for its hourly employees (adjusters are hourly) is a convenient way to hide it. And… look into how “productivity” is calculated. It’s based entirely on hours worked and the amount of estimates completed. If you were to be paid for overtime to complete administrative tasks (which are not considered part of productivity) you would actually hurt your results and ultimately lose out on wage performance review increases. It’s a way for the Company to encourage working off the books and cheat employees out of wages. And yes, retaliation for speaking up about anything is alive and well at Geico!
Does anyone know how to get a lawsuit going in Texas for the same exact behavior. This is Geico wide and not limited to a specific area.
I hope that this Pennsylvania class action lawsuit is successful. I worked for Geico for 26 years in the state of Georgia and rarely worked for less than 60 hours per week. If you asked for overtime you were told that you had poor organizational skills and were instructed to spend additional unpaid time proving that you worked as many hours as you said that you did. Of course your productivity metrics would suffer as well and you would be put on a coaching plan or performance improvement plan which just took additional time from your work week and hurt your performance metrics even more. You were better off just submitting the timesheet for 7.75 hours on Thursday evening to get your administrative work done so you could spend an hour or two with your family before going to bed.
If this who I think it is…. I was thinking about you just the other day! Hope your are doing well :-) Checking to see if still have your number….
And I appreciate the comment. Sometimes this gets tough- and seeing the input helps me taking another step forward
SH
As a current AD Supervisor and previous GEICO AD Adjuster I can agree this is a practice nation wide and it comes down from on top. Although I’m salary now work requirements are even more demanding. 12+ hour days and weekends are not only not uncommon but are required to complete the job.
There are systemic issues within the company in my honest opinion very rarely in the 5+ years i have been with geico have i taken a break and lunch daily. Even before becoming a supervisor i didnt get to. Now even more so. I worked very very hard. I have massive stress and anxiety and work anout 55hours a week.
The expectations they set are very high for all levels in AD dept. And issuing memos and write ups when im already working like a dog to get my stuff done without having a properly filled staff team.
As a former rural AD Adjuster that bordered Susan’s territory I can confirm the way that GEICO misrepresents metrics and forces people to work longer hours to close claims.
Geico has a certain amount of estimates that have to be written in order to be proficient in your productivity metrics. They say they make adjustments for adjusters that handle rural territories due to extensive drive time but that is never reflected in the metrics. It’s not uncommon to be a 1 in productivity because you’re driving 300 miles a day covering 3 counties.
In order to compensate you may try to see one more claim 2 hours away from where you live but if you report that time not only does management disapprove but it also increases the amount of claims you’re required to close as more time means more claims. So you are forced to report 7.75 hours while still working so that it appears you’re closing more claims in that time period than you are due to no fault of your own.
The way they treated us during covid is the reason why I no longer work for them and would never look back.
Lunches are also not a thing. You are required to have your phone on and be able to answer your entire shift. If you miss a call that goes against your answer rate which is then held against you in performance reviews. When questioned about how they account for the 45 minute lunch we were supposed to have they never had a solid answer just that you were only required to answer a certain percentage. But if you missed enough calls during your lunch period it would drop you below your percentage and effect your performance. So you’re essentially on call for the entire 8.5 hour shift. Added to that are the phone audit where someone from corporate would call your phone and if you didn’t answer and didn’t call back within 30 minutes you were put on a list. If that happened while you were eating once again you’re on call.
Thanks Josh. Means a lot to me to see people on here responding and commenting. I wondered what had happened to you! And you are completely right. Hope you’re doing well.
This is 100 percent true. In fact there is a correlation between how they calculate your goals based on hours worked versus claims closed. If you close the number of claims to meet average standards then they view that as a normal workday. If you take longer to close those same number of claims and report the OT, then your goals are not being met. We’d take longer some days to close the average claims but wouldn’t claim the hours so we could meet our goals.
Wow, A few months ago I decided I would “take a stand” against this and actually claim the hours I worked. I received an email from my supervisor telling me that my OT doesn’t justify my closed estimates and it is affecting my metrics. I was told that If I had to work over I needed to contact my sup and explain why? Also, I couldn’t claim Ot if I did not close more than 5?! I worked for a major competitor for 8 years doing the same thing and did not experience this, proof that Geico does not have to do things this way. I am glad this has been brought to light and grateful for the bravery of every here. This needs to change! I wor
The same thing happened to me. I got phone calls from upper management telling I was working unauthorized overtime and I was essentially taking from the company. So they can steal from us but when we want to get paid for time worked it is suddenly an “integrity” issue. I want to see Geico get sued and sued for a lot. Time for them to be scared of forcing employees to work off the clock. Needs to be national news too. Let people see their truth.
If you handled “only 5” claims in a given day and 2 or 3 of them were total losses you probably worked for at least 10 to 12 hours considering all of the work required to research the value, move the salvage, and contact the lien holder or retrieve the title. It was ridiculous that they believed that anybody could do all of that and write the estimate in only an hour.
Thank you Susan! I will be contacting tour attorney for information. I agree 100% about what is stated in the court filing. Been with GEICO for enough time to know it would take a suit like this to hopefully drive some real change. A grateful current AD.
Please add me
Hello, Pamela. My attorney’s contact information is Gregg Greenberg & office # 301-587-9373
( and to add a small clarification- I’ve been employed since 2002, not just since 2018). Wish you well whatever you decide!
I’ll be contacting your attorney tomorrow as well.
I work for Geico and this is absolutely true. US wide. They force us to only report 7.75 hours per day. But the workload far exceeds that. Overtime is not authorized. If you work OT you will be written up. Even if OT is allowed it has a negative impact on your metrics. This results in loss of promotions, merit raises and profit share bonuses. Geico absolutely uses fear and intimidation to get employees to work off the clock. Geico has a history of cheating employees and customers. If you speak about it, you are branded as a negative person that is hurting the team and Geico mission. You are told to be appreciative to have a job. You are told your wages and the fact you didn’t get laid off should be enough. Reports to HR and Berkshire Hathaway go unanswered or they say it will be looked into.