ZELMA Brawner worked for Bank of America (BOA) for about 28 years, occupying the positions of “Dedicated Service Director” later renamed “Treasury Services Consultant,” and “Treasury Services Senior Advisor” for the last 13 years of her tenure. Brawner claimed that throughout her work as a “director,” “consultant” and “advisor,” her employer classified her and about 100 other employees as exempt from California overtime laws. This meant that they were not paid for work beyond 8 hours per day or 40 hours per week. Brawmer sued BOA in a class action, claiming that she and her fellow employees where misclassified, and should be entitled to back wages.
The employer countered that Brawmer and other employees were employed “in an administrative capacity.” They provided account services to major corporate accounts, and regularly exercised discretion and independent judgment. The employer insisted that these employees were correctly classified as administrative employees, and were exempt from overtime. Brawner claimed that their work duties were little more than that of customer-service representatives, even though they had high-sounding titles.
After years of litigation, the parties decided to settle the case rather than proceed to litigation. Under the terms of the settlement, BOA will pay a total amount of $2,250,000 to the employees.
California employees are exempt from overtime pay only if they fall within very specific exemptions. One of these is the Administrative Exemption. For employees to fall under this exemption, they must be paid the monthly salary equivalent to no less than twice the state minimum wage. More importantly, their primary duties must involve administrative work. What does “administrative work” mean?
Courts have ruled that work is ‘administrative’ when it is ‘directly related’ to management policies or general business operations. ‘Directly related’ means being ‘primarily engaged’ in such work, and that the work is “qualitatively administrative.”
“Qualitatively administrative” means the employee’s work duties relate to the administrative operations of a business as distinguished from ‘production’ or ‘sales’ work. Production, sales, and customer service are duties that are not necessarily performed at the level of policy or general operations, and may merely be the day-to-day carrying out of the business’ affairs.
If an employee’s primary duties involve day-to-day tasks that are not directly related to management policies or general business operations, then these employees may simply be engaged in production work, not administrative work. If so, then they should be entitled to overtime pay for work beyond 8 hours per day or 40 hours per week.
“Salaried” employees who work a lot of unpaid overtime hours, and who have doubts that they are really doing management or administrative tasks, should ask themselves the following questions:
Is my main duty the management of the business or a department of that business?
Do I customarily and regularly direct the work of two or more employees?
Do I have authority to hire or fire other employees?
Do I customarily and regularly exercises discretion and independent judgment?
Do I earn a monthly salary equivalent to at least twice the state minimum wage for full-time employment?
If there is at least one “no” answer to the above questions, the employee would be smart to consult with a knowledgeable employment attorney to see if she or he is entitled to additional wages and other remedies. Misclassification results in loss of significant wages to the employees. It should not be tolerated.
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The Law Offices of C. Joe Sayas, Jr. welcomes inquiries about this topic. All inquiries are confidential and at no-cost. You can contact the office at (818) 291-0088 or visit www.joesayaslaw.com.
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C. Joe Sayas, Jr., Esq. is an experienced trial attorney who has successfully obtained significant recoveries for thousands of employees and consumers. He is named Top Labor & Employment Attorney in California by the Daily Journal, consistently selected as Super Lawyer by the Los Angeles Magazine, and is a member of the Million Dollar-Advocates Forum. (Advertising Supplement)
