Bloomberg Overtime Lawsuit Settled for $54.5M

A $54.5 million settlement has reportedly been reached in a Bloomberg overtime lawsuit.

The Bloomberg overtime lawsuit alleges the company had deliberately denied overtime pay to the plaintiff Class.

The lawsuit was filed by three Bloomberg analytic employees in April 2014 by lead plaintiffs Eric R., Alexander L., and William V., alleging they and other employees were wrongfully misclassified as exempt from overtime pay.

Denying proper overtime pay not only violates the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), but New York and California labor laws as well.

According to the Bloomberg overtime lawsuit, the plaintiffs had requested class action status for a Class of New York employees. This Bloomberg overtime lawsuit had been certified as a class action in April 2015, with United States District Judge Denise Cote recently certifying a plaintiff Class of over 1,300 New York employees. Each of the claimants worked as customer service representatives. Later, a Class of California employees was certified as well.

Bloomberg had reportedly argued against certification of the Class, stating that each of the claimants’ experiences, duties, and allegations may vary significantly. However, the presiding judge stated that the claim does not need to have identical claims, because of the factual background of the lead plaintiffs.

Judge Cote stated that analytic employees in the proposed Class have the same job title and occupational duties, as well as identical initial job training. In addition, these Class Members were also evaluated based on the same merits for their respective jobs.

Overview of Bloomberg Overtime Lawsuit

According to the Bloomberg overtime lawsuit, analytic representatives are responsible for answering customers’ questions when they are using the Bloomberg web service through chat windows.

Like many other companies, Bloomberg offers this customer service option for customers who have urgent or quick questions that can be answered faster than calling customer service. These questions vary between customers, ranging from general questions to technical inquiries in how to use Bloomberg for business purposes.

Even though these Bloomberg employees would regularly work over 40 hours a week, they were allegedly denied overtime and were wrongfully classified as exempt. Companies must pay employees 1.5x their hourly rate if they work over 40 hours in a single work week, and can only classify an employee as exempt if their job meets specific requirements.

Some of these requirements include the nature of their occupational duties and if they have the power to hire or fire other employees. According to the settlement terms, Bloomberg will admit to no wrongdoing and pay the settlement to resolve the Bloomberg overtime lawsuit.

“Recognizing the risks of continued litigation, including the possibility that the litigation, if not settled now, might result in no recovery or a recovery that is less favorable and that would not occur for several years, class counsel is satisfied that the terms and conditions of this agreement are fair, reasonable and adequate, representing the litigation-risk adjusted fair settlement value of this case,” the parties said in the agreed motion for settlement approval.

This Bloomberg Overtime Lawsuit is Case No. 1:14-cv-02657, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

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