UBS, one of the world’s largest financial services companies has agreed to pay $1.4 million to resolve an unpaid overtime class action.  The case was brought on behalf of computer technicians who alleged they were paid a salary, and were misclassified as exempt employees, thus entitling them to unpaid overtime.  Generally, computer help desk or computer customer service employees are entitled to be paid overtime, while programmers and code-writers are not.  Many help desk or customer service employees are required to spend many hours working from home, or on smartphones at all hours of the night, responding to emergencies.  Employees should be aware that if they bring a case for unpaid wages, they are protected against retaliation by their employer.  For more information regarding employees being entitled to overtime, please contact Fitapelli & Schaffer for a free consultation.

Novartis, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, has agreed to pay a staggering $99 million to resolve a class action brought by sales representatives for unpaid overtime.  This very issue, of whether pharmaceutical sales representatives are entitled to overtime is scheduled to be decided by the United States Supreme Court later this year.  These cases revolve around the issue of the administrative and outside sales overtime exemptions.  In the Novartis case, the company won summary judgment on the exemption issue at the District Court level.  However, the Second Circuit reversed on appeal, finding the sales representatives not exempt and thus entitled to unpaid overtime.  The Supreme Court will have to rule on the outside sales exemption, which will be interesting, since pharmaceutical salespeople do not sell any products.  Sales people merely “pitch” the products to doctors, who in turn, prescribe the drugs to patients.  We will update you following the Supreme Court’s ruling, which will affect overtime eligibility for all salespeople nationwide.