Anthem Health Insurance Overview:
- Who: Health insurance provider Anthem has been hit with a class action lawsuit filed by former employees.
- What: The employees allege that the company underpays them and avoids paying overtime while setting quotas that are impossible to achieve within a 40-hour working week.
- Where: The case is pending in Indiana district court.
Health insurance provider Anthem underpays its employees and avoids paying overtime while setting quotas that are impossible to achieve within a 40-hour working week, a new class action lawsuit alleges.
Former Anthem employees Ashley Harris and Lita Fillipo filed the wage and hour class action lawsuit against the company on behalf of all non-managerial employees who enrolled or recertified clients in Anthem plans over the past three years. They are suing for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and state wage laws.
Harris says in the claim that she started working for Anthem Companies in Virginia in 2007 and worked there for $18.51 an hour, plus a quarterly commission, until 2019. Throughout her 12 years at the company, Harris says she was consistently given sales quotas to meet, and, due to company pressure to produce and because it was not possible to meet required quotas working only during regular scheduled hours, she had no choice but to engage in work after her scheduled hours.
“Plaintiff Harris and her coworkers took calls after hours, including on weekends … and would also submit completed forms and applications necessary to enrollment after hours. Although Plaintiff and Class Members were working overtime, Defendant never paid them overtime,” the claim alleges.
Harris says that although she was only paid for a 40-hour working week, she typically had to work 68 hours per week with approximately 28 hours overtime.
Furthermore, she says that Anthem threatened adverse employment action against employees requesting to be compensated for their overtime hours, which forced her and others to work off-the-clock or risk termination for failure to meet quotas.
“Defendant induced off-the-clock overtime hours by creating extreme quotas for their sales and enrollment teams, which they are required to work overtime to meet,” the lawsuit states.
Employees Would Work From Home To Complete Work, Plaintiffs Allege
Fillipo was in a similar situation, but for a shorter period of time, having started with the company in August 2021. Fillip says in the claim that to meet quotas set during open enrollment periods, she would typically work 70 hours per week, with approximately 30 hours overtime.
“Lita Fillipo and other employees would spend at least half their regularly scheduled hours working from home, and would work from home to complete their additional work,” the claim reads.
Fillipo and Harris seek to recover unpaid wages, including unpaid overtime compensation, liquidated damages and attorneys’ fees and costs from Anthem for its “willful failure and refusal to pay them the proper overtime compensation at the rate of one and one half times the regular hourly rate for work in excess of forty hours per workweek and improperly classifying non-exempt employees as exempt.”
They seek certification of the class, injunctive relief, damages, interest, legal fees and costs and a jury trial.
Anthem is currently facing a very similar class action lawsuit filed by former employee Deon Baker, who alleges that the company underpays its workers by denying them overtime.
The plaintiff is represented by C.K. Lee of Lee Litigation Group, PLLC.
The Anthem Companies Wage Theft Class Action Lawsuit is Harris et al., v. The Anthem Companies, Inc., Case No. 1:22-cv-00002-JMS-MJD, in the U.S. District Court Southern District of Indiana.
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One thought on Anthem Class Action Claims Health Insurance Provider Sets Impossible Quotas for Employees, Refuses to Pay Overtime
Anthem terminated me years ago stating I did not not meet production. They gave me 60 days to meet an impossible number for production. Forced me to process institutional claims with out a training class. They had me sit with 2 employees for 3 to 4 days for training when the normal training was for at least 4 to 6 weeks. They knew institutional claims took longer to process, they set me up to be terminated because I complained about unfair treatment and favoritism among employees. I was told to resign because Anthem did not pay unemployment and I refused. I filed for unemployment and won my case. The inemployment office told them it didn’t matter how fast or slow an employee worked, they could not terminate an employee not meeting their production standards. I worked there 16 years and nearly 10 I could count, due to them turning over and demolishing areas continously so they could cut out pensions and medical plans employees would be entitled to after they would retire.