Bank of the West Faces Class Action Lawsuit for Allegedly Breaking Federal Overtime Rules

Bank of the West is facing a class action wage and hour lawsuit from a group of employees, alleging the financial institution had violated various federal overtime rules when paying employees.

The federal overtime lawsuit alleges the bank was not paying employees overtime when they worked the required hours and wrongfully misclassified them as exempt from overtime benefits.

This class action wage and hour lawsuit is being filed by four plaintiffs who are alleging similar violations against federal overtime rules, and that this is a systematic problem in Bank of the West:

• Iowa plaintiff Maria M. says she was employed by Bank of the West from August 2001 to November 2013, and was employed as a customer service manager (CSM) from September 2003 through November 2013 in a branch location of the company in her state.
• California plaintiff Debra A. alleges she was employed by Bank of the West from July 1990 to February 2014, and had worked as a customer service manager during her employment in a branch location in her state.
• California plaintiff Cynthia P. says she was employed by Bank of the West from January 2013 to October 2017, and had worked as a customer service manager at a California branch location during the duration of her employment.
• California plaintiff Eddie C. alleges he was employed by Bank of the West from January 2009 to October 2013, working as a customer service manager at a California branch location during this time.

Each of the plaintiffs allege they are covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act and their respective state laws, and say they are filing legal action against their employer for allegedly violating federal overtime rules. Under the FLSA, non exempt employees must be paid “time and a half” their hourly rate if they work over 40 hours a week or over eight hours in a single work day.

Overview of Federal Overtime Rules

Bank of the West is incorporated in the state of California, but has 600 bank branches in 19 different states. The financial institution has over $600 billion in assets, and is legally obligated to adhere to state and federal overtime rules.

The plaintiffs in the class action wage and hour lawsuit say that they represent employees of the Bank who worked as customer service managers and frequently had to work as many as 10 hours a day with locations open six or even seven days a week.

Customer service managers, allege the plaintiffs, often had to perform the same duties as non exempt hourly tellers and assistant customer service managers, to keep up with the damages of customers. The typical occupational duties of customer service managers included: working on the teller line, selling Bank of the West’s products and services, and performing routine audits.

Even though their jobs primarily consisted of duties found in lower status employees, customer service managers were still classified as exempt from overtime due to their management titles, say the plaintiffs.

Under the FLSA, professional employees with “white collar” jobs or employees with administrative or executive positions are exempt from overtime benefits. However, having the job title “manager” or supervisor” does not automatically exempt employees from overtime benefits, with employers responsible for making sure their employee meet FLSA requirements when determining overtime eligibility.

The plaintiffs argue that none of them met these requirements, with each of the plaintiffs alleging Bank of the West had knowingly violated federal overtime rules. The claimants are filing this class action wage and hour lawsuit on behalf of themselves, and other similarly situated.

This Class Action Wage and Hour Lawsuit is Case No. 3:18-cv-00033-JAJ-RAW, in the U.S. District Court of Southern Iowa, Eastern Division.

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