Oakland, CAFinal approval has been granted for a proposed settlement in a California Wage and Hour Lawsuit against Bank of America alleging improper classification of some employees. The settlement, granted final approval on January 14 of this year, is worth $2.25 million.
According to court documents, plaintiff Zelma Brawner was an employee of the Bank of America in California for almost three decades at the financial institution’s back-office facility located in Concord. Brawner alleged in her California Wage and Hour class action that the defendant misclassified dedicated service directors (DSDs) as administrative employees - denying anyone working as a DSD overtime pay.
The DSD is a kind of personal concierge available to bank customers and clients, and according to the plaintiffs, “If the customer wishes to open a new account, close out an old account or inquire about the status of a transaction in an existing account, the customer can contact the DSD and expect a personalized and prompt response,” the employees said in the motion. “The Bank did not pay any overtime premium pay to the DSDs because it classified them as ‘administrative’ employees who are ‘exempt’ from the overtime protections set forth in Wage Order 4.”
In her California wage and hour lawsuit - first brought in June 2014 - Brawner cited no fewer than five violations to California wage and hour laws: failure to pay overtime wages, failure to provide accurate itemized wage statements, willful failure to pay all wages due within 72 hours after separation from employment, violation of California’s unfair labor law, and violation of the Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act.
The defendant, Bank of America, is reported to have denied the allegations, but agreed to the settlement as a pathway to avoid a costly and lengthy litigation.
In her summation granting final approval of the settlement, the judge in the case noted that “litigation poses risks and is expensive, and an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the plaintiff’s and the defendant’s cases militates in favor of settlement,” Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers wrote in the order granting final approval. “Second, the settlement treats class members fairly, allocating the money to them based on a formula weighted by their annual salary, estimated overtime hours and eligible workweeks.”
The settlement is reported to cover DSDs, treasury service consultants and senior treasury service consultants numbering 133 in total and having worked for Bank of America at the Concord facility from May 9, 2010 through January 14 of this year, the date at which the California Wage and Hour Settlement was formally approved.
Following dispensation for court costs, legal fees and other deductions, some $1.6 million will be available for class members according to the judge’s distribution template, noted above.
The case is Brawner v. Bank of America National Association, Case No. 3:14-cv-02702, in US District Court, Northern District of California.